RAJKOT: Want to earn some quick bucks? Find a stray dog and take it for sterilization!

The Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has offered Rs 250 cash per dog to any citizen who brings a canine to the sterilization centre at the sewage treatment plant in Madhapar.

The civic body has awarded the contract for dogs’ sterilization to Animal Rights Fund (ARF), a Bengaluru-based voluntary organization. RMC pays the agency Rs 1,250 per dog. It has to pick up stray dogs, sterilize them, vaccinate them for rabies and release them back in their respective locations.

“Though 45,992 stray dogs have been sterilized since 2008, the work is a daunting as population of the canines is spread across the city. Finding them is difficult and that is why we decided to take help of citizens,” said municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra, justifying the Rs 250 cash offer. The stray menace has reached alarming proportions in the city and nearly 300 cases of dog bites are reported every month at Rajkot Civil Hospital. Last month alone, 349 cases were registered.

Sources said the sterilization work was abandoned for two years as no agency was ready to take up the task.