Ever heard of a rule that a civic licence is a must for keeping a dog at home? Most Calcuttans haven?t.

And they need not bother any more, as the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) is likely to scrap the century-old regulation. The CMC Act of 1980, too, has a provision for issuing licences for pets.

?There is a provision in the CMC Act for a pet licence, but it is not mandatory like the trade licence. As a consequence, the requests for a burial ground for pets far outnumber the licences issued by the civic body,? said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharaya.

According to civic documents, there is a pet dog for every 20,000 people.

And while the dog population is growing steadily at 15 per cent, the number of licensed owners is still at 550.

The annual earning from the licence ? an owner has to pay Rs 60 a year ? has been a paltry Rs 33,000.

It?s not that only dog-owners are at fault. Even racing-horses or the horses owned by the Mounted Police are not registered.

The annual licence fee for a racing horse is Rs 800 and for other horses Rs 32.

According to municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay, there is a positive correlation between the rise in the pet-dog population and the spread of nuclear families and flat culture.

Ranadip Ghosh Roy, of Indian Psychiatrist Association, feels the pride of place of a dog in an apartment stems from the security it provides to the household, the unconditional love and loyalty it exudes and also its contribution to the family?s status.

At times, astrologers, too, advise their clients to keep a white, brown or a black dog to bring fortune.

Commissioner Bandyopadhyay feels there are two options before the civic body ? making the licence mandatory by amending the CMC Act or scrapping the regulation.

Officials in the accounts department feel the amount the civic body will lose if the practice is discontinued is quite manageable.

Also, a section of officials argued, it is almost impossible to differentiate a licensed dog from an unlicensed one, as registered pets carry no identification mark.