Be tough on Nipah rumour mongers: Kerala Poultry Farmers
The young chicken and feeds that are now brought from Tamil Nadu are very expensive and hence the price cannot be brought down below Rs 100.
Thrissur: The Poultry Farmers' and Traders' Samiti has called upon the state government and police to take stringent action against miscreants who are spreading rumours of contracting Nipah virus by consuming chicken. They say that in a week as many as one crore kg of chicken are sold in Kerala and due to such baseless campaign by some persons, a section of the public were showing reluctance to buy chicken thereby the sales plummeting by 30 per cent in the past few days.
"The rate has come down from Rs 134 to Rs 118 per kg in three days. We have identified two WhatsApp numbers and handed it over to police. Besides that, another person has made a forged letter of the Kozhikode District Medical Officer (Health) from a order the DMO had issued citing that there was no official report issued by the Health authorities asking people to abstain from eating chicken in view of Niphah,"Binny Emmatty, state president of the Samithi, said.
P D Davis, who is the treasurer of the samiti, said that the false campaign was intended to stop the export of chicken and eggs from Kerala to foreign countries.
However, the traders said that the price of chicken could come down in the state only if the state government's scheme of providing feeds and chicks on lesser rate to Kudumbashree succeeds. The young chicken and feeds that are now brought from Tamil Nadu are very expensive and hence the price cannot be brought down below Rs 100.