Dr. Tanwar urges government to arrange CSR funds to deal with the lumpy skin disease
In Himachal Pradesh, the cases of infection with lumpy skin disease have reached an average of 500 per day, but the coordination between the departments of the government has not yet been established. While the Animal Husbandry Department is calling lumpy an epidemic, the State Disaster Management Authority is refusing to consider it an epidemic. The minister announced in the assembly to give compensation for the death of the animal, but the announcement has not come to the ground yet. The rules for awarding compensation are not yet clear.
Due to the poor arrangement of the government, a delegation of Himachal Kisan Sabha under the chairmanship of Dr. Kuldeep Singh Tanwar met the Director Animal Husbandry regarding the cattle rearers and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Director. People from more than 50 affected families of Mashobra and Basantpur development blocks participated in the delegation.
The memorandum demanded :-
1. Notification for compensation to be issued.
2. Compensation should be given to the cattle owners at the earliest.
3. Compensation should also be given for animals who died of lumpi disease before the date of notification of epidemic.
4. The farmers who had bought the cow by taking loan and died, their loan should be waived off.
5. Due to illness, those families whose milk has decreased due to disease, those families should also get compensation.
6. Vacant posts of Animal Husbandry Department should be filled immediately.
7. Vaccination campaign should be intensified.
8. Medicines and injections should be made available in dispensaries for the prevention of virus.
9. Vehicles should be arranged for doctors and staff working in the epidemic.
10. Special allowance should be given to them for giving more time during holidays.
11. Inter-departmental coordination committee should be constituted to deal effectively with the epidemic.
After the memorandum, Dr. Kuldeep Singh Tanwar said that at present the structure of Animal Husbandry Department is very weak which is not sufficient to deal with the epidemic. Government should pay special attention to this
Dr. Tanwar said that the government should arrange funds under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to deal with the epidemic