BEHRAMPORE: After meeting with stiff resistance from villagers, the Murshidabad district administration, on Friday, took the help of police to forcefully cull poultry in the bird flu-affected areas of Khargram.
Khargram BDO Kalyan Kumar Das and Kandi SDO Utpal Bhadra went to Sherpur and Nagar villages with a large police backup and oversaw the culling operations. Birds were forcefully seized from villagers who tried to resist the culling teams.
"We have decided to forcefully cull birds from villagers who refuse to co-operate with us. In those cases, no compensation will be given," said Murshidabad DM Parwez Ahmed Siddiquie. "A large number of flu-affected birds are alive, as locals aren't handing them over hoping that the birds would get cured. We haven't got the desired success in culling ducks, too. If we keep even a single bird alive in the affected areas, there is a probability of an outbreak next year too. If the administration remains inactive, the virus might also spread to the human body. So, we had to take a stern decision."
Khargram panchayat samiti sabhapati Abul Kashem said, "About 45 culling teams have been working for the past week in seven gram panchayat areas. By this time, the culling operation should have ideally got over but so far, we have culled only 55,000 birds."
Villagers were also seen demonstrating against the district administration's move at several places.
The Khargram sabhapati said that very few people had handed over ducks. "Villagers are handing over hens, since they have started getting compensation on the spot. But they aren't handing over ducks. Seeing this resistance, there was no option for the district administration other than forceful culling," he said.
Barwan panchayat samiti sabhapati Krishnendu Roy said: "Last year, many people of my block didn't get the one-time grant of Rs 500 from the government. So, there is some unwillingness to hand over birds to the culling teams. Culling operations have also begun in some parts of Kalyanpur-I gram panchayat from Friday."
He said there is an urgent need to revise the compensation. "There's not much difference in the rates for big and medium-sized birds. So, people are mostly only handing over the medium-sized birds, keeping the full-grown birds with them. We have appealed to the government and district administration to revise the compensation rates," Roy said.
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