‘Country chicken in scheme to address health concerns’

The State Minister for Tamil Development, Tamil Culture and Archaeology at a meeting in Tiruvallur, said, “There is a thought prevailing among people that consuming broiler chicken affects health, and so, taking this into consideration, the government is distributing country chicken for the economic upliftment of rural women [instead]”.

The scheme distributing 50 country chickens to each identified beneficiary in the State follows the success of free cattle and goat distribution scheme implemented earlier. The more recent scheme introduced in June last year was reported as an attempt to promote backyard poultry activity among rural women in all districts, except Chennai. There was, however, no official announcement made reasoning the move.

When the issue of health being affected by consuming boiler chickens was raked up in the Assembly, the State government had instead played it down, stating that there is no scientific proof that broilers chickens are harmful to health. Minister Pandiarajan’s recent statement thus appears to contradict the stand of the very same government he is a part of.