BHOPAL: A noble initiative by the Madhya Pradesh government to sell Kadaknath chicken meat and milk reportedly from a single dedicated parlour in Bhopal has triggered a political controversy in the Congress-ruled state, with the opposition BJP dubbing the move as anti-Hindu and Jain.
The Huzur (Bhopal) MLA and BJP state vice president Rameshwar Sharma has written a letter to Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday, demanding that the reported sale of milk and Kadaknath meat from a common parlour be immediately stopped.
In the letter, the BJP leader has mentioned that the purchase of Kadaknath chicken from the tribal population engaged in Kadaknath chicken farming to render them livelihood is praiseworthy. But at the same time, it’s a cause of concern that meat of the same Kadaknath chicken is subsequently being sold with eggs and milk from the same parlour of the MP State Livestock and Poultry Development Corporation.
“Selling milk and chicken from the same parlour is wrong as it hurts the sentiments of Hindus, Jains and Buddhists and hence the practice should be immediately stopped and the sale of milk and Kadaknath chicken meat should be done through separate parlours,” the BJP leader demanded.
Reacting to the BJP legislator’s letter to the CM, the MP animal husbandry minister Lakhan Singh Yadav said the BJP is only slamming the move for the sake of being in opposition. The opposition party is ignorant of the actual facts. “Milk and Kadaknath Chicken meat are being sold from separate counters and not from a common counter as being alleged by the BJP leader. He should have visited the concerned parlour before making the baseless allegations,” Yadav told The New Indian Express on Saturday.
Importantly, the black-coloured Kadaknath chicken variety which inherently possesses high-protein nutritional content and purported medicinal properties is a native variety of Jhabua and adjoining districts of west MP.
According to the state’s animal husbandry minister Lakhan Singh Yadav, the Kadaknath chicken meat and milk parlour in Bhopal has been started in Bhopal on an experimental basis by the MP State Livestock and Poultry Development Corporation.
“If the experiment clicks, similar parlours will be started elsewhere in the state, which will not only render market to tribals engaged in Kadaknath poultry farming but also pave passage for the farming of the same high-protein nutritional content chicken variety in other parts of the state,” said Yadav.