Mumbai: In a welcome move for pet owners, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has officially scrapped the requirement of a no-objection certificate (NOC) from a housing society to obtain a dog license, after facing strong backlash. Animal activists have welcomed the move saying that this will remove the confusion which was earlier created because of an absurd requirement on the website.
Backlash Over Website Criteria
On August 8, The Free Press Journal had reported that NMMC drew flak from animal lovers for asking the housing society’s NOC to obtain a dog license from its website. This was heavily criticised by animal lovers as well as animal welfare organisations, as they called it an indirect way of making the housing societies the decision makers for whether a resident can keep pets at their residence.
While the civic body claimed that the document is not mandatory unlike other documents with an asterisk mark, animal activists had demanded the complete removal of the criteria.
Activist’s Push Against Misguiding Rule
Mumbai-based animal welfare officer Roshan Pathak had sought information from the civic body about the law, AWBI rules and court judgements under which a society NOC was required. However, NMMC’s veterinary officer said that no such information was available with them.
Step Towards Pet-Friendly Governance
Following this, the activist wrote to the animal welfare board of India (AWBI) on Friday alleging that NMMC failed to remove the misguiding criteria, which was laid without any supporting law, even after a month of complaint.
Following the complaint, NMMC immediately updated its website and removed the criteria which asked applicants to upload an NOC from their housing society. Animal welfare activists and pet parents across the city have lauded the decision.
Many see it as a step toward aligning municipal policy with the guidelines issued by the Animal Welfare Board of India, which stress that housing societies cannot ban pets or impose unreasonable conditions on pet ownership.
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Pathak, who is also an animal rights activist at Pure Animal Lovers (PAL) Welfare Foundation, said, “Pet parents treat their pet as a family member, and we do not need any certificate from our residential society to permit us to keep a family member inside the house. There is no government rule which mandates a society NOC for the license. In future, we will keep monitoring such municipal corporations which try to harass pet parents through such misguiding rules.”
