Shillong, March 27: The state government will constitute a Task Force to address the concerns of poultry farmers in the state.
Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Minister AL Hek informed this on Thursday after meeting a delegation of the Meghalaya Poultry Farmers and Welfare Association (MPFWA).
“The government will constitute a Task Force to look into the issues faced by the poultry farmers,” Hek told reporters.
“Whatever problems are faced by them, they should bring it to the notice of this Task Force,” he said.
The minister informed the delegation that there is no case of bird flu and the cases they were referring to happened in 2019-2020 in Haryana and not recently.
“If it had happened recently, it would have come to the notice of the government and the department will not keep quiet, we will take action on such diseases that happen from outside and affecting Meghalaya,” he said.
Member of the association William Diengdoh said the delegation had expressed concern over the entry of poultry from outside the state especially from certain parts, which are declared infected by the bird flu.
Referring to media reports, Diengdoh said there was one vehicle detected and it was carrying poultry coming from Haryana which was also a declared state and the poultry products were detected at an early stage and they were not allowed entry into the state.
“Following upon that, we have come to the state government to basically demand for a temporary ban on entry of poultry, however we understand a temporary ban or any other provisions may not be applicable but the government has decided to put up a task force to look into the grievances and to also ensure that checks are being carried out as per the SOPs and the national action plan”.
“There are SOPs and we are just looking forward to further implement these SOPs. Once these SOPs are implemented and transporters who are bringing poultry are able to follow or rather are following as per the Motors Vehicle Act, as per prevention of cruelty to animals and as per transportation of livestock rules, we are hopeful everything will be under control,” he said.
Diengdoh said the delegation is happy with the outcome of the meeting but it would like to see action being taken on the ground.
“The government is going to constitute a task force immediately and some of our members will also be part of the task force so that we can highlight areas of shortfall as shortfall keeps on coming in day to day life and we expect whatever shortfall that may come, we should be able to address and government should be able to solve it,” he added.
