पौष २ गते, २०६९ मा प्रकाशितKATHMANDU, DEC 17 – The Ministry of Agriculture Development (MoDA) on Sunday suspended six quarantine officials –two under-secretaries and four technicians–on the charge of allowing the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to import chicken from India illegally.
The suspended officials have been charged with permitting the import of 11 tonnes of frozen chicken despite the government’s ban on meat imports from a bird flu affected country.
The suspended officials include Under-secretary Munni Lal Chaudhary, chief of the Birgunj Quarantine Office, and another official Hari Ram Koirala; Chitwan Quarantine Office chief Daya Ram Chapagain and Under-secretary at Central Quarantine Office Mohan Dev Lekhak. The ministry interrogated the suspended officials on Sunday.
Nara Bahadur Rajwal, director general of the Livestock Service Department, said the ministry has formed a committee to investigate into the matter.
The three-member panel will be led by Uttam Kumar Bhattarai, joint-secretary at the MoAD. Further penalties for the suspended officials will be as determined by the committee’s report, to be submitted within five days to Secretary Jaya Mukunda Khanal.
However, the government has not initiated probe into the possible involvement of customs officials and police personnel, who also have a say in the process.
Khanal urged the Department of Customs (DoC) and the police to initiate action against those involved from their respective organisations.
“I have taken action against officials under my ministry,” Khanal said at an interaction. “I hope you will initiate action against your juniors for allowing the illegal import.”
During the meeting at the MoAD, representatives from the Home and Finance ministries promised investigations if there had been imports of other banned products.
Meanwhile, the ministry asked the Department of Commerce, the Armed Police Force that guards the border and the Nepal Police to stop the import of poultry products from countries named by the World Health Organization as having bird flu.
WHO enlisted India as bird flu-infected some two months ago. The government, in its notice on the Nepal Gazette on September 24, 2006, banned the import of birds and animals from countries under the grip of bird flu.
Two containers of frozen chicken imported for the outlets of the international fast food chain KFC were dumped in Dhading on Saturday in the involvement of local farmers. – ekantipur
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