Festivals stall culling

MALDA, March 22: The Malda district administration has extended the culling programme for one more day due to Holi festival. The state had directed the district to end culling by Saturday. Speaking to the reporters, the Malda district magistrate Mr CR Das said, the culling programme was hampered due to three festivals of three religions on Friday. “We have to end culling by Sunday,” Mr Das said. Despite announcing this several times no one handed over their pet birds to the culling team. A total of 30 culling teams are working here with police protection. The district administration targeted private organised poultry farms in the culling today. District ARD officials have a goal of culling roughly 45,000 birds within a 3 km radius from the epicentre where the virus was found. On the other hand, chicken traders secretly shifted all saleable birds from English Bazaar town to Mangalbari market under Old Malda municipality, which is not under the 3 km radius. “This trend has raised controversy over the control system of the bird flu virus,” said Mr Satyajit Bandyopadhayay, the Malda SP. SNS