The state government has placed an order for 1,896 high milk producing cows from Ludhiana (Punjab) and Karnal (Haryana) for 948 families who opted for cattle rearing under its flagship programme New Land Use Policy. Of these 555 have reached Mizoram and 522 have been distributed to the beneficiaries, with each beneficiary receiving two cows.
“As a number of cows imported from Ludhiana were found to have contracted foot-and-mouth disease, we have called off the order from Ludhiana and Karnal,” said NLUP chief media officer David L Thangliana. After laboratory test, the FMD is found to be type O.
Officials said transit fatality was also high among the cattle imported from Ludhiana. However, veterinary officials have claimed that the cattle contracted the disease after their arrival in Mizoram.
The 191 cows which are on their way to Mizoram will be quarantined at Vairengte on Mizoram-Assam border till they are proven to be free from disease. The Mizoram government has spent about Rs 1.3 lakh each for purchase and transportation of two cows.
Besides the high-breed cows from Karnal and Ludhiana, all the cattle imported from the neighbouring states and Myanmar will be subjected to medical examination at the border points under the Control of Movement of Animals from outside Mizoram Act.
A man in Kolasib in northern Mizoram was charged with criminal breach of trust, under section 406 IPC, for selling the cows he had received under the flagship project. The man is now serving jail term.