A section of officials under the Animal Husbandry Department have registered their protest over the appointment of the department’s technical staff for COVID-19 duty in Kozhikode district. They claim that the district-level order was issued ignoring the State government’s earlier directive that they should be exempted from such duties considering their service as essential category.
In the latest incident, a livestock/poultry assistant from the Chathamangalam Regional Poultry farm was asked to join duty. “The poultry assistant was one of the key hands required to manage the daily activities of the regional poultry farm which is producing 15,000 chicks a week,” sources said.
An official also alleged that those handling the re-arrangement of duties were ignoring issues facing the department. “Usually, the technical staff turn up for duty every day at 8 a.m. and leave by 5 p.m. Many of them have been working here without any interval to support farm production,” he said.
It could affect the weekly production capacity of the farm which catered for thousands of poultry farmers in Kozhikode and other districts. It would also affect the ongoing activities under the State government’s Subhiksha project which considers poultry as one of the key components, they said.
