The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, May 25, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Poultry units in dire straits
Call for stir against govt policies
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

PATTI, May 24 — Once known as the ‘house of poultry farming’ all over India and Nepal, this border town is now facing worse days than militancy.

There was a time when gun-toting ‘boys’ had imposed a ‘blanket ban’ on the sale of eggs, broilers and meat as a part of the so-called social reform movement in the late eighties. The kidnapping of one Ranjit Singh Kairon, a son of poultry farm owner in 1990, and the later killing of Avtar Singh Chawla, an owner of a poultry farm in Sangrana village, near Amritsar, for extortion had played havoc with this business. Following these incidents, 50 per cent poultry farm units had closed down in the border districts of Amritsar and Gurdaspur during the height of militancy.

After the return of normalcy, the poultry farm owners started dreaming of better days. However, due to the alleged callous attitude of the state government, the units which had survived militancy are facing worse days now. The poultry farm owners who were facing tough competition in their traditional market had begun marketing their products in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Ironically, it was again militancy in Jammu and Kashmir which hit the poultry business of Punjab. Now the poultry owners of Punjab are unable to supply their produce up to Srinagar. They can only supply eggs up to Jammu.

Mr Bhagat Singh, a pioneer in poultry farming in this border belt, while talking to TNS, said that poultry farming had developed due to the broad vision of late Partap Singh Kairon, a former Chief Minister of Punjab who had encouraged this vocation in his home town, Kairon, which falls in Patti subdivision. “Mr Kairon knew that farmer could not survive unless he goes for diversification of their crops”. Mr Bhagat Singh, who had set up his poultry unit in 1963, said.

Mr Kashmir Singh and Mr Jodh Singh Bhandari, President and Vice-President, Amritsar Poultry Industry Association, respectively, told TNS that while the units which had shifted to adjoining states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh during militancy had been doing flourishing business, the poultry owners in Punjab had been facing their ‘worst days’ due to the alleged callous attitude of the state government. While there is no sales tax on ingredients of poultry feed anywhere in the country, the Punjab Government had imposed such taxes from January which is being considered as a “gift of the millennium”.

Mr Tejwant Singh Chabba, a law graduate who has also done MBA from Guru Nanak Dev University, said he had opened a poultry farm with a great hope. However, the ‘wrong policies’ of the state government, especially the sales tax had adversely affected poultry farming. Many poultry farm owners had converted the sheds into dairy farms or were using them for storing fodder. Only about 500 poultry units were left in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts.

Mr Ranjit Singh Saggu, Mr Kulbir Singh and Mr Gurdip Singh, who have been running poultry farms for the past more than three decades, alleged that the ‘poultry mafia’ in Delhi had been controlling the price of eggs. The ‘mafia’ created a scarcity of eggs at its will to earn more profit. Such tactics of the ‘mafia’ had further reduced the profitability of poultry farmers, they claimed.

The recent decision of the government of India to allow imports of chicken meat products and eggs to India would further harm the domestic poultry farming sector. Mr Tejwant Singh, an office-bearer of the Amritsar Poultry Association, said that leg pieces of chicken were likely to be exported to India by the USA and other European countries. The people of these countries treat chicken leg piece as ‘ red meat’ or ‘black meat’ and hence it would be exported to India and other developing countries as a throwaway price. With this, developing countries would virtually become a ‘dumping ground’ for chicken leg pieces, which would adversely affect the poultry industry in India.

In the border districts of Amritsar and Gurdaspur, the poultry sector is providing livelihood to about 1 lakh people. The Amritsar Poultry Association has called upon its members to be vigilant to protect their interests and launch a movement against the “ill-conceived” policies of the state government.

They alleged that while Partap Singh Kairon had promoted the poultry industry in Amritsar district, his grandson, Mr Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Excise and Taxation Minister, had not even come to their rescue. Mr Adesh Partap Singh Kairon should immediately announce the withdrawal of all taxes on inputs of the poultry industry to keep the memory of his grandfather alive, they demanded.