Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers staged a massive protest in Rajasthan's Jaipur over thousands of cattle deaths due to the lumpy skin disease in the state on Tuesday, 20 September.
Visuals showed protesters clashing with the police, breaking barricades, and raising slogans, as the police tried to stop them from marching to the state assembly.
Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia was captured climbing atop a police barricade as the protests turned chaotic, news agency ANI reported.
The saffron party has also brought this issue to the Assembly, with a BJP legislator Suresh Singh Rawat bringing a cow outside state assembly premises to shed light on the disease.
"To draw attention towards lumpy disease, I brought a cow to the Vidhan Sabha (campus)," Rawat said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has urged the central government to declare the lumpy skin disease as a national calamity.
On Monday, he tweeted, "I called a meeting on 15 August regarding lumpy skin disease and called the leaders of the opposition, talked to everyone, talked to the religious leaders, our priority is how to save the lives of cows from lumpy skin disease, but the central government will have to provide the vaccine and medicines."
An isolation centre has been opened in Udaipur to treat the infected animals, the Additional Director of the animal husbandry department told news agency ANI.
8 Lakh Cows Affected
Across the state, 34,243 cattle have died due to the disease, the Animal Husbandry Department had indicated last month.
Meanwhile, the state Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Lalchand Kataria had indicated that so far around 8 lakh cows have been infected, of which 7.40 lakh have been treated.
The rate of infection is decreasing rapidly in western Rajasthan, Kataria added.
Other hard-hit states include Haryana, Gujarat, and Punjab.
According to Jaipur Dairy Federation, the biggest milk cooperative in the state, milk collection in the city is down by 15-18 percent. However, there has there has been no disruption in the supply so far, reported NDTV.
Vaccine for Lumpy Skin Disease
As of now, there is no vaccine to counter the disease, but Gehlot has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Rajasthan to be given a priority once a vaccine is ready, reported NDTV.
The report further added that the goat pox vaccine has proved to be effective against the disease. Rajasthan has 16.22 lakh goat pox vaccine doses, with which 12.32 lakh cattle have been vaccinated so far.
(With inputs from PTI and NDTV.)
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