Monday , December 22 , 2008
Raiganj, Dec. 21: The North Dinajpur district administration has clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 on Itahar block to prevent the smuggling of chickens from adjoining bird flu-hit areas of Malda district and its sale.
The orders, effective since yesterday, came into force after the district poultry owners and dealers’ associations complained to the subdivisional officer of Raiganj that chickens from the bird flu-affected areas of Malda were being clandestinely sold in Itahar.
Debabrata Mahanta, the Itahar zonal secretary of the North Dinajpur Poultry Owners’ Associations, said: “We have information that unscrupulous people in Itahar are buying chickens from Malda at cheap rates and are selling them in markets. We want the district administration to take steps so that the disease does not spread in our district.”
He said the people were using village paths to smuggle in the chickens. “We have information about the routes being taken. Since we cannot challenge these people, we have turned to the administration,” Mahanta added.
The subdivisional officer of Raiganj, Animesh Bhattacharya, admitted that the village roads were difficult to patrol, although the vehicles coming in from the Malda side on NH34 were being checked.
“We enforced the order to make the smugglers wary and stop them from coming in groups of more than five. The move will help us arrest such persons on the spot. We have informed the police and the block development officer about the order,” Bhattacharya said.
North Dinajpur district police chief Sankar Singha, however, denied having received any information on the order. “I have no knowledge about the order. The police have been on the alert since bird flu was confirmed in Malda,” he said.
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