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State agrees to culling

Bhubaneswar: A reluctant Orissa government on Monday finally decided to start culling of chicken in the wake of a directive from the Central government even as poultry farmers threatened to move the High Court, official sources said.

“As per recommendation and direction of the Centre, we will take up culling of all poultry birds in the five-kilometre corridor along the Orissa-West Bengal border,” Chief Secretary Ajit Tripathy said after holding discussions with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. At least 8,84,000 chickens in Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts, which shared border with the bird flu-affected West Bengal, would be culled, the sources said. Mr. Tripathy said poultry farmers would be compensated according to the prevalent rate fixed by the Central government.

While the Fisheries and Animal Husbandary department had earlier advocated against culling of ‘healthy’ chicken, the Government decided not to take any risk.

“The officials did not want to take the risk of saying no to culling, despite knowing that Orissa birds are healthy,” said a senior official. PTI

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