The West Bengal Government on Tuesday banned the sale and movement of poultry throughout the state for an indefinite period. The move comes days after it announced that the spread of the H5N1 virus among the poultry has been controlled.“We have banned the sale, purchase and movement of hens, ducks and eggs throughout the state indefinitely. This is necessary for the control of the outbreak. We do not want to take any risk since this is an unprecedented outbreak. Till date, a total of 35 lakh birds have been culled. The disease has affected almost all the districts. We will provide relief to all affected people, including businessmen, SHG groups and others. We have already got Rs 5 crore from the Union Government and have asked for an additional Rs 75 crore,” said Anisur Rahman, ARD Minister. “We first banned it in some affected districts, but the local administration failed to enforce it. There was utter confusion regarding the localised ban and therefore, the decision,” Rahman said. The decision came after a meeting between Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Health Minister Surya Kant Mishra and ARD Minister Anisur Rahman. Later, Mishra and Rahman held an hour-long meeting with various department secretaries.According to highly placed sources, the ban came after the Government realised that it was still unable to contain the spread of the virus. Though only 14 districts have been confirmed bird flu affected, there are unofficial reports about other districts being affected. This will be clear once the result from the Bhopal laboratory comes.The Government has also asked police, panchayats, district administration and municipalities to conduct raids at different places, apart from keeping a strict vigil to enforce the ban. The Government is awaiting for the results of samples of dead poultry from different parts of the state, many of which are likely to be positive.“We are taking all precautions so that not a single human being is infected. Till now, no human infections have been confirmed. Reports for 23 human samples have been received, all of which are negative. Thirty lakh people are under surveillance and we are conducting door to door health checkups.” said Minister Surya Kant Mishra.Meanwhile, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is expected to demand Rs 75 crore from the Centre when he meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on Wednesday.The Government has drawn up a compensation package, which will be forwarded to the Union Government. The package includes waiver of loans of affected Self Help Groups, issuing fresh loans to the groups after the outbreak is controlled, Rs 500 per affected family, financial aid to traders, smallscale businessmen, shop and stallowners who deal with poultry.Meanwhile, culling operations continued in South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and other districts which recently confirmed the virus. The Government has directed hundreds of ARD staff, who participated in the culling, to complete their medications before returning home, after reports of the majority discontinuing their precautionary health programme.
