RMC has no immediate plan to either reopen the lone Kanji house — short-stay home for stray animals — in the capital or construct a new one.
The corporation’s apathy is in direct violation of a Supreme Court order and central government regulation that make it mandatory for civic bodies to shelter stray animals.
“There is no such proposal to construct any Kanji house or revive the old one at Bakri Bazaar. Kanji houses are mainly meant for bovine animals. As far as stray dogs are concerned, the RMC regularly conducts sterilisation drives,” deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya said on Saturday, a day after chairperson of Animal Welfare Board of India S.P. Gupta met chief minister Raghubar Das.
Constructed in 1979, the Kanji house at Bakri Bazaar is being used as an RMC storehouse for eight years. Last year, the civic body in its board meeting had taken up the proposal to reopen the shelter, but the plan got shelved.
RMC sources said the Bakri Bazaar shelter was shut down in the absence of manpower and funds.
“It was also found that animals in the shelter were being auctioned to butchers. A few years back, a Kanji house was proposed at Sukurhuttu in Kanke, but the plan was abandoned,” an RMC official said.
Honorary member of State Animal Welfare Board Pankaj Vatsal said the RMC was bound to provide shelter to stray animals in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment.
“Under the rule, local urban bodies are supposed to construct and manage Kanji houses. Animals, too, are protected by law,” Vatsal said.
He said three existing cowsheds at Sukurhutu (110 acres), Ormanjhi (67 acres) and Harmu (2 acre), where bovine animals seized from cattle smugglers are kept, are overcrowded in the absence of Kanji houses.
Animal Welfare Board of India chairperson Gupta had on Friday told the media that he had requested chief minister Raghubar Das to set up animal shelter homes and veterinary hospitals in every district.
The government has decided to construct animal shelters in Deoghar, Hazaribagh and Lohardaga.
Around 2.4 acres in each district have been identified for the shelters that can accommodate 200 animals each.
Another shelter home at Jama in Dumka is also under consideration.