Bird flu PILs: Guj govt submits action-taken report

The Gujarat Government today submitted its action-taken report regarding the bird flu scare in Memnagar area, after which the court adjourned the matter for final judgement on January 31.
During a brief hearing today, the division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi observed that the culling of birds at a rescue centre during night was not desirable and enquired about government's strategy to deal with such incidents in future.
Upon receiving the action-taken report from the state government, the bench kept the hearing on January 31 for final order.
The high court was hearing a set a two PILs related to the detection of bird flu among birds kept at an animal rescue centre in the thickly-populated Memnagar area of the city.

In its earlier affidavit, the state government had claimed that swift action was taken by the administration to tackle bird flu. The state government also informed the court that the virus has not affected any human yet in Gujarat.
In their PILs, petitioners Bhagwatiben Brahmbhatt and Kiran Shah contended that authorities have not followed any guidelines and tried to hide their failure by doing culling operation during the night of January 13.
The petitioners also sought identification of persons responsible for bringing affected birds in the locality and action against them by way of penalty for causing hardship to local residents.