Congress members staged walkout in the State Assembly on Tuesday demanding the setting up of a ‘House Committee’ to probe death of 21 spotted deer at the Kanan Pendri Zoo in Bilaspur last month besides alleged black marketing of the PDS foodgrains in the State.
Congress member Umesh Patel raised the issue of the death of spotted deer during the question hour while demanding the status of the probe being conducted to find the cause of animals’ death. Chief Minister Raman Singh in his reply to the Congress member stated that a two-member committee of the Central Zoo Authority was probing the incident and its report would be tabled before the House. “It has been decided to take stringent action against the persons found responsible for the death of deer at the Kanan Pendri Zoo in Bilaspur,” he said.
Singh said that a total of 21 female spotted deer were found dead in the Kanan Pendri Zoo in Bilaspur on January 15, 2014. Immediately after receiving the information on the death of animals, a three-member committee was formed which was led by the Joint Director, Veterinary Services in Bilaspur and sent to the Zoo for conducting a probe, Raman said.
The committee on January 17 submitted its report stating that on examination of the upper ear samples of the deer in a laboratory had found a bacili in the samples while suspecting Anthrax infection as the cause of death, the Chief Minister said. The samples of the animals on the recommendations of the Committee were later sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Bareli and its report received on January 21, 2014 did not find Anthrax in the samples, he said. Another probe is being conducted by a two-member team of Central Zoo Authority and its report would help know the cause of the death of animals, Singh said. The postmortem of the animals was not conducted fearing them being afflicted with Anthrax infection and all were buried with an order to keep the Zoo closed for 21 days, the Chief Minister stated.
On a demand raised by the Congress members that a House Committee be formed to probe the incident, the Chief Minister urged the Opposition members to wait for the report of the Central Zoo Authority and after going through that, a House Committee could be formed if so desired by the members. “We should all wait for the report to be submitted by the Committee,” he said. To this, leader of Opposition TS Singh Deo stated that even before, a baby elephant and three tiger cubs had died at the Kanan Pendri Zoo in Bilaspur and it is recommended that the incident be probed by a House Committee.
Replying to the leader of Opposition, the Chief Minister remarked, “This is a serious issue for all of us. The team of specialists had arrived in the zoo and we need to wait for their findings.” Replying to a supplementary question, Singh said that there are no CCTV cameras installed at the Kanan Pendri Zoo gate and there is no permission to hold any kind of party in its premises.
The another issue on which the Congress members staged a walkout was when Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Punnulal Mohle could not offer his reply due to expiry of the time assigned for the question hour to an allegation made by TS Singh Deo that more than 20 lakh additional ration cards had been prepared and Rs 1,200 crore worth of food grains was going into the hands of black marketeers.
Cong forms its own panel