From November 3 to November 28 Indifference or inefficiency ?
|
The timeline given here in bold is done so with a purpose. On November 3 the Manipur Progressive Pig Farmers’ Association (MPPFA) had a story to tell the media, a story that was meant to be told to Manipur. A large number of pigs had been infected by an unidentified disease at Phibou, Kakching, Ukhongsang, Kumbi and Moirang Khunou. Nothing seemed to move, and it was only on November 10 that experts of the Central Agriculture University (CAU) flagged the concern over the outbreak of African Swine Fever while interacting with a number of pig farmers via video conference. Nothing was heard from the side of the State Government, particularly the Veterinary Department. Eleven days later, that is on November 21 came the news that 64 pigs have been culled in Kakching confirming the outbreak of African Swine Fever. Churachandpur was another district wherein the outbreak was confirmed. For a week everything was quiet after this, but on November 28 came the news that ASF has been confirmed at a pig farm at Keirao Salam Leikai in Imphal East. It gets more interesting and intriguing from here. The said pig farmer first reported the stillborn case of five piglets on October 27 to the Veterinary Department through its helpline 1962. The Veterinary Department did send a team to the said farm on October 28, one day after the matter was reported and on this day too, one pig died. The next few days had the same story with one more pig dying on October 29 and again on November 6. Here again a team from the Veterinary Department arrived at the said pig farm on November 7 and it was only then that samples were collected to be sent for confirmation of African Swine Fever. While waiting for the results to come, more pigs died and altogether 27 pigs have died since then. The timeline given here should tell a significant story for the apprehension of the outbreak of a disease was told to Manipur on November 3 and confirmation report of African Swine Fever was rolled out only on November 21. What took the Veterinary Department so long to confirm the outbreak of the highly contagious disease ? Samples from Manipur are usually sent to the North Eastern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Guwahati and it is hard to believe that it would have taken ten or eleven days to confirm the outbreak of ASF. Moreover it was as way back as November 3 that the MPPFA had flagged concern over the outbreak of an unknown disease in pig farms located in at least five places ! Did the Veterinary Department swing into action back then ? It was on October 28 that the deaths of five stillborn piglets were reported and it is not clear whether samples were collected to be sent for confirmation. Questions which the Veterinary Department should answer, for today ASF is real, very real and it is flummoxing to note the lethargic pace with which the said department moved to deal with the matter.
Indifference, lethargy, inefficiency are the words that come to mind when one looks at the manner in which the State has responded to the unfolding situation. The generally held public perception is Government employees work more efficiently when the State is under President’s Rule as the pressure of political interference is absent, but looking at the way in which the Veterinary Department has responded to the unfolding situation, this perception may just be tossed for a six ! Outbreak of ASF is not new to Manipur, and the moment information about unnatural deaths of pigs was received, everything ought to have moved at a fast pace. There is still no answer on why the result took so long to come back from the testing lab, much less on why there is no report of samples being collected to be sent to the lab when reports of unnatural deaths of pigs started coming in. It was never like this earlier, or did it also take days for the confirmed report to come from the lab ? Or were the samples sent to some far away place and not Guwahati ? Even if that is the case, geogpraphical distance should not be a factor in the internet age, when information can be shared with a press of the button. Fortunate that ASF is zoonotic, meaning it does not infect humans, but what if the virus mutates ? Will Manipur have to wait for days to get the result ?
Indifference, lethargy, inefficiency are the words that come to mind when one looks at the manner in which the State has responded to the unfolding situation. The generally held public perception is Government employees work more efficiently when the State is under President’s Rule as the pressure of political interference is absent, but looking at the way in which the Veterinary Department has responded to the unfolding situation, this perception may just be tossed for a six ! Outbreak of ASF is not new to Manipur, and the moment information about unnatural deaths of pigs was received, everything ought to have moved at a fast pace. There is still no answer on why the result took so long to come back from the testing lab, much less on why there is no report of samples being collected to be sent to the lab when reports of unnatural deaths of pigs started coming in. It was never like this earlier, or did it also take days for the confirmed report to come from the lab ? Or were the samples sent to some far away place and not Guwahati ? Even if that is the case, geogpraphical distance should not be a factor in the internet age, when information can be shared with a press of the button. Fortunate that ASF is zoonotic, meaning it does not infect humans, but what if the virus mutates ? Will Manipur have to wait for days to get the result ?