MUMBAI: The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has sent a notice to the office bearers of Green Arch Cooperative Housing Society in Mumbai for charging a member Rs 1,500 for allegedly feeding stray cats in the building compound.

Bank employee and cat lover B K Rao told TOI: "Last month, I was surprised to see in my housing society bill a miscellaneous charge of Rs 1,500 for the specific reason that I feed cats inside the compound. I told them that this is an illegal fine and that I was being harassed."

Rao contacted animal welfare officer Anand Siva who wrote back to the society asking it to revoke such an outrageous "miscellaneous fine" as it was perfectly legal to feed animals inside or outside a building compound.

"Despite the legally binding letter to Green Arch society, the members told me they did not care about my 'phaltu chitthi' (stupid letter) that I sent them. I then had no option but to urge AWBI to step in," Siva said.

But the society secretary Manish Visawadia seemed to feel justified in fining Rao. "Before telling Rao to pay the additional charge of Rs 1,500, I had personally told him not to feed stray cats inside the society," he told TOI. "We had even designated a place outside the gate where he could feed the cats. But he did not listen," he added.

Visawadia added a cat and three kittens dirtied the place and endangered the health of their children.

But Rao claimed he cleaned up the place after feeding the cats. "When it rains, I have no option but to feed the stray animals inside the building. This does not endanger the health of anyone in the society," he asserted.