Dy mayor suggests sterilisation of cats to control numbers

Deputy mayor Alka Kerkar has raised a sensitive issue of the rising number of cats in the city. Kerkar has requested that the civic administration start their sterilisation on the lines of stray dogs.

She plans to take up the issue in the group leaders meeting on Friday. Her proposal states that cats give birth to at least two to five kittens at a time, and can do so a maximum of four times in a year, thereby increasing their population on which the civic body has no control.

Kerkar has suggeted that a civic dispensary in Bandra, which was recently renovated by the BMC, be used as a sterilisation centre for Khar and Bandra on a pilot basis. She has also demanded that a budget allocation for the same be made so that the project could be started at the earliest.

However, her proposal garnered mixed reaction from civic corporators. While a few were amused at the demand, many acknowledged the truth in it.

A senior leader said an expert committee should be formed to give opinion on the same and the BMC should ask it to come up with suggestions and measures to control the population before it turns into a menace.