Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab’s vaccination drive against foot-and-mouth disease hit as owners oppose ear tagging of cattle

Amid cattle owners’ apprehensions against ear tagging of animals, the Punjab animal husbandry department is set to miss its target for the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccination.The department was to vaccinate around 60 lakh animals by November-end, but so far, it has only been able to cover around 10 lakh animals.As per the Centre’s vaccination programme, all animals have to be ear tagged after vaccination, and linked to the Aadhar card of the owner. Farmers fear that this will lead to more taxes for them under the new Electricity Act-2020. “Farmers are ready for FMD vaccination but we have learnt that ear tagging will lead to higher charges for power under the Electricity Act. The animal husbandry department should perform vaccination but we do not consent to ear tagging of our cattle,” said Gobinder Singh, Sangrur block chief of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan).“This is a misconception among farmers. The tagging has nothing to do with taxes or power charges. Tagging is necessary so that the government can show proper records for the vaccination, at the international-level,” said Dr Naresh Kochhar, state coordinator FMD vaccine. He added that as per the central government’s guidelines, there can be no vaccination without tagging. “I appeal to farmers to not be scared and let the department officials vaccinate the cattle as the project has to be completed within the set time for it to work effectively,” said Dr Kochhar. The vaccination drive had started on October 15 and is to be completed within 45 days. Kochhar further said that in the absence of vaccination, there is a high risk of an outbreak, which will eventually lead to losses for the cattle owners. He revealed their target is to eradicate the disease within five years. Staff shortageMeanwhile, veterinary officers, on the condition of anonymity, said the animal husbandry department is also facing a shortage of staff for vaccination which is also a cause for “low performance”.

Hindustan Times

22-11-2020

City