PROVING A POINT: Members associated with the poultry industry and the State Government on Thursday organised a special luncheon for VIPs and media to dispel fears of bird flu in Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD: In a bid to dispel fears about bird flu, the poultry industry on Thursday sponsored a lunch with chicken items to Ministers, MLAs, officials and the media at a club here.

The eat-out was so well attended that the sponsors had to order chicken biryani packets from a hotel to feed everyone.

The original menu included fried chicken, boiled eggs, biryani and a host of other related dishes. Animal Husbandry Minister G. Surya Rao, Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Laxmaiah, Chief Secretary T.K. Dewan, MLAs Malreddy Ranga Reddy (Cong), G. Vijayarama Rao and M. Satyanarayana Reddy (TRS) and Nomula Narasimhaiah (CPI-M) were among those who joined the campaign.

Official message

The Ministers told reporters that they intended to send out an official message that it was absolutely safe to eat chicken and eggs. D. Ram Reddy, State president of Poultry Breeders Association, expected the sales to pick up as awareness was spreading that chicken was harmless. Priyadarshi Dash, Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry, said 570 samples referred to Bhopal high security lab tested negative.

Meanwhile, the State Government has hinted that it will not go back on cracking a whip on the industries which do not comply with the environmental norms.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has asked the polluting industries to set a timeframe for taking steps to make their units environment-compliant. Lest, the Government would be forced to close them, he said.

He was speaking at a function to launch Oseltamivir, the first of its kind bird flu vaccine in the country introduced by the city-based Hetero Drugs Limited in association with Swiss-based Roche.

Inaugurated

Dr. Reddy also inaugurated the third unit of Hetero Drugs, a 100 per cent export-oriented finished dosage generic manufacture facility.

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