KOLKATA: Chief minister
Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday strode into the dead
chicken sale controversy and hauled up bureaucrats for failing to act in time.
Reports of dead chicken being sold to roadside biryani and roll shops have triggered widespread fear. TOI has reported how some households have gone off chicken temporarily, which has bled the industry and caused a price dip.
Banerjee, addressing an administrative meeting in Birbhum on Wednesday, took animal resource development department principal secretary B P Gopalika to task for the chicken deaths in Baduria, North 24-Parganas. “Why are poultry dying in Baduria? Why didn’t we get information on time?” the CM asked.
Gopalika tried to say that he acted after getting information on a consignment of dead poultry being shipped out from Baduria but that drew another rebuke. “You took action after four days. Your officers from the district didn’t pass on information to the government. Why have your officers, including the DM, BDOs and police inspectors-in-charge, failed to inform you before the incident? What were food inspectors doing during the routine procedure of seizing such stocks?” the CM asked.
Bengal produces around 2.2 crore kg of chicken every week, of which 2 crore kg is consumed in the state. Kolkata alone consumes around 54 lakh kg of chicken a week. Both supply and demand have slumped by nearly 30% following the incident, affecting thousands who depend on the industry in North 24-Parganas, West Midnapore and Bankura. But, more than that, the general wariness over a commonly consumed protein appeared to have sparked the CM’s anger. “Your department may choose to sleep on the matter. But we cannot because people blame us,” the CM said, prompting the department’s deputy director to scurry for Baduria within hours and seek a report from the DM and SP.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation, however, has acted swiftly. Food inspectors collected samples of chicken from a roadside biryani shop on Tuesday and picked up a sample of raw chicken from New Market. These sample are being tested at the civic laboratory as well as Jadavpur University.
KMC food inspectors again collected samples of raw chicken from stalls at Entally Market on Wednesday. These too have been sent to the two laboratories for testing.
A team of food inspectors has been assigned to each of the 16 boroughs. The state government has given KMC Rs 3 crore to set up a fund to check food adulteration. The current drive against sale of dead and stale chicken is part of this initiative.
Mamata Banerjee
