Bengal pays for not paying dues

Kounteya Sinha / TNN / Jan 18, 2008, 01:24 IST

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West Bengal has compounded its earlier folly of not informing the Centre in time of the unusual mortality of birds by not paying compensation to poultry owners.

NEW DELHI: West Bengal has compounded its earlier folly of not informing the Centre in time of the unusual mortality of birds by not paying compensation to poultry owners, whose birds are presently being culled.
The animal husbandry department was officially informed on Thursday by its officers touring the state that farmers were just being promised compensation but were not being paid.

Highly placed sources told TOI that the department wrote a letter to the state government on Thursday asking them to compensate farmers as soon as their birds are culled.
The rate finalized stands at Rs 40 per egg-laying adult chicken, Rs 30 for those used for meat and Rs 10 per chick. A compensation package of Rs 1 crore has already been sanctioned for Birbhum and Rs 25 lakh for South Dinajpur.

"The speed of culling has been seriously affected by this. Because compensation is not being given, farmers aren’t letting their poultry to be culled. In the last two days, we have culled around 35,000 birds whereas our target is to cull over 4 lakh birds in one week. We can’t achieve this target if the state does not compensate farmers fairly," sources said.
Ironically, top health and veterinary scientists, policy-makers and ministers from 105 nations and 20 international and intergovernmental organizations, who had recently attended the International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza in Delhi in December, had applauded India’s "swift, fair and efficient disbursement of compensation to poultry owners" hit by bird flu in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Manipur in 2006 and 2007. This, they said, had actually helped the country contain the outbreak without mass animal casualties or a single case of human infection.

Peter Harrold, World Bank’s director of avian and human pandemic influenza overall operational response team, had told TOI that compensation was most vital during a bird flu outbreak. "Farmers have to feel they are getting a fair price. Or else they will hide their poultry and bird flu can go undetected. They may even resort to clandestinely selling the infected animals," he added.
Health minister A Ramadoss had said, "Our national action plan for preparedness, control and containment of avian influenza recognizes that culling of affected birds will succeed only if poultry farmers are adequately compensated immediately after an outbreak is confirmed."
David Nabbaro, senior UN system influenza coordinator, said, "India’s philosophy to compensate quickly and fairly at the district level is commendable. That’s why farmers came out in the open and declared when their birds died in the past two outbreaks."
Meanwhile, the present outbreak of Avian Influenza in West Bengal seems to be more serious and threatening that the two previous outbreaks in Maharashtra and Manipur.
Admitting this, the Centre and WHO on Thursday said more serious risk factors are associated with this current outbreak than previously encountered, including that the affected areas are more widespread. Officials say ground zero’s proximity to extended border areas makes it even more threatening.
Officials have started to fear that West Bengal’s initial laid back attitude towards poultry deaths and late reporting to the Centre may have led to the virus spreading. Birds have started to drop dead in new districts like Nadia, Murshidabad, Burdwan and South 24 Parganas. Samples have been collected and are presently being tested for H5N1 infections.
An official admitted: "We feel Murshidabad deaths may also be due to H5N1." According to the Centre’s latest estimates, a total of 61,075 poultry birds have died in Birbhum, South Dinajpur and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal in the last 10 days.
Fresh cases of mortality have also been reported from the Khargram and Burwan blocks of Murshidabad district, adjoining the affected areas of Birbhum. Fresh mortality of 347 poultry birds was also located in the Gangarampur block in South Dinajpur district.
Officials said: "As per a message received from the state government, there are reports of unusual mortality in Terhatta block of Nadia district, Kalna block of Bardhman district and Baruipur village of South 24 Parganas. Except for a mortality of 40 poultry birds from Baruipur village, figures of mortality in the other two blocks are not yet available. Scientists have collected samples and sent it to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal, to ascertain whether it is H5N1 infections or not. Active surveillance is being undertaken in these areas," officials added.

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