Some chickens still stalk Chanchal

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Feb. 3: Though the Malda administration has completed culling and mopping up of areas within a radius of 5 km from Mahanandapur village in Chanchal subdivision along the Bihar border in the northern part of the district, some chickens are still roaming there. During inspection the members of the Central team posted at Chanchal have detected chickens in a few villages, the district administrative officials said today. The Central team has spotted two villages, Dhanjana and Mahanandapur close to the Bihar border, where the villagers brought out chickens from hideouts. The Chanchal sub divisional officer, Mr Debasish Sarkar has issued a written order to the respective gram panchayat pradhan to kill backyard poultry immediately. Before the surprise visit of another Central team leader, Mr Negi, the local administration is trying hard to kill the backyard chickens as soon as possible. The local administration suspects that local residents either sent their chickens to the houses or they have brought them from villages in Bihar. The Chanchal sub divisional administration has posted 10 policemen for mobile patrolling along the Bengal-Bihar border to prevent entry of chickens from outside for three months. Awareness campaigns have also been started. Nobody would be allowed to rear chickens for three months. Following the order, the district magistrate of the Chanchal sub divisional has decided to issue arrest warrants against the labourers and government employees if they leave the quarantine centres violating government order. It was alleged that some of the labourers, who were directly engaged, had left the centre without informing authorities after having their meals. Fifty five staff of the animal resources development department have been quarantined in a hotel in Chanchal and 320 labourers have been quarantined in their respective villages under the supervision of the gram panchayat office. The administration is bearing the expenditure for their food and lodging. “We will issue arrest warrants against those who would not be present during roll calls in various quarantine centres. Following the instruction from the chief minister through video conferencing, the district administration is executing strictly the quarantine system for culling teams who were directly engaged for killing the birds. According to the Chanchal SDO, door-to-door health check ups for the local villagers have been started.