No central help, cribs minister

The West Bengal government was yet to receive the assistance it sought from the Centre for bird flu control, said Anisur Rehman, minister for animal resource development of West Bengal.

The state had recently announced a Rs 700 crore package for those who suffered losses on account of bird flu.

"Till no we have received Rs 8.5 crore only from the Centre. We sought 50 per cent assistance from the Centre for supporting the Rs 100 crore grant we announced recently," he said.

The state had announced Rs 600 crore soft loan for poultry owners and others apart from the grant.

The decision to remove the ban on the sale of poultry was based on the observation that no bird flu was reported from the affected districts over the last 10 days, the minister said.

"The reason of imposing the ban was, that everyday new cases of bird flu were being reported. Also there was a possibility of human infection of the disease. This necessitated the ban. All the 30 human blood samples sent to Bhopal till the ninth of this month tested negative," he said.