GUWAHATI: The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has recently proposed an amendment of the GMC act according to which the pet owners might face penalties over open defecation by their pets.
The decision by the GMC comes after repeatedly receiving complaints from Guwahati residents regarding the open defecation of animals in public places.
Raising concern over the matter, the GMC has made the decision of penalizing the owners of those animals defecating in open spaces.
The owners will now have to pay a fine of Rupees 2000 and the animals found defecating in public will be seized by GMC officials.
Point 22 of the GMC act of 2021 proposes an amendment adding section 301 of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation Act, 1969.
According to the amendment, no individual will allow pets to urine or defecate or create inconvenience in any form in any public places like roads and streets, failing which the GMC will confiscate the pets and the owner will be penalized with a fine ranging from Rupees 500 to 2000.
A member of an NGO based in Guwahati said that this initiative by the corporation is welcomed though the fine amount is relatively low.
The member further said that he came to know that GMC has been working on regulating the owners of animals for a long time but the fine imposed is very less which is not making big difference to the offenders in a real sense.
He added that they could have taken some strict actions which would have been better for the people as well as for animals.
Many citizens reacted with different opinions on the decision of the GMC as according to some despite the amendment of the act the law implementation, in reality, is doubtful because GMC lacks manpower or other monitoring processes to watch the violators.
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