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No delay in tackling bird flu: West Bengal

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

A sad moment: A resident of Jhero village in Hooghly district of West Bengal bursts into tears before handing over her pets to health workers for culling on Thursday.

Kolkata: The West Bengal government said here on Thursday that there had been “no deliberate delay” by authorities concerned in combating the outbreak of avian flu, which has affected nine districts of the State.

“There has been no deliberate delay though reports from clusters of backyard poultry spread over long distances could have taken time to reach the authorities initially,” Anisur Rahaman, the State’s Minister for Animal Resources, told The Hindu.

He declined to comment on the reported remark by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that the failure of the West Bengal government to take “appropriate action” had led to the rapid spread of avian flu in the State.

“This is not the time for counter-reactions but for making coordinated efforts to contain and eradicate the disease from the affected districts,” Mr. Rahaman said.

“But it must be remembered that the State government had decided at one stage that birds in the affected regions suspected to have been contaminated with the virus will be culled even before the reports from the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal, were available,” he added. “This is indication of the State’s determination to contain the spread of the disease without any delay.”

The Minister also dismissed allegations that the State government was late in informing the Centre about the outbreak.

“The first unusual bird deaths were reported on January 8 and not before the evening of January 15 were the Central notifications on the outbreak received. Preparations for culling began the very next day,” he added.

The State authorities are hopeful of completing culling by the “next four to five days.” Nearly 21 lakh birds collected from areas falling within a radius of five km from where chicken died of H5N1 virus are to be destroyed.

The police have been asked to assist the civic authorities to prevent the movement of poultry products into Kolkata from areas where the outbreak has occurred.

Close to seven lakh poultry birds were culled till Wednesday evening to which another three lakh were expected to be added by the end of the day, Mr Rahaman said.

The poultry to be culled were spread over a vast area and “culling more than 20 lakh birds within a week is a difficult task,” State’s Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb said. “We have geared up the entire operation,” he added.

The situation was reviewed at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Besides compensation for those whose poultry were being culled, a preliminary plan for the rehabilitation of people whose livelihood depend on the sale of poultry products was being prepared which would be submitted to the Centre.

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