The ‘Murghi Paal’ scheme launched by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has failed to make any impact, according to an internal report. Pakistani news media City 41 reported the matter on the 2nd of September.
According to the report, instead of selling eggs laid by the hens in the market, citizens who took the chicken cut them up and ate them instead. Some of the hens did not even lay eggs. The internal report says that three percent of the hens have died.
According to the report, 90% of the people did not sell any eggs in the market and consumed it themselves. 10% of the hens did not even lay eggs. However, 80% of the citizens want the scheme to continue.
The ‘Murghi Paal’ scheme was launched in the Pakistani province of Punjab this year where it was targeted that 500,000 hens will be distributed by the end of 2021. The hens were to be distributed at a subsidized rate of Pakistani rupees 1050 while the actual rate is 1500.
The previous year, 324,000 poultry was distributed among 50,000 families. This year, the scheme is expected to benefit 72,000 families.
Assistant Director and Project Supervisor Dr Athar Mehmood, said, “All chickens that are to be distributed in Punjab are raised at our poultry farm. He said that there are 10 major government poultry farms in Punjab, including Rawalpindi, Attock, Dina, Sargodha, Multan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Gujrat, Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan. The layer hens here lay 240 million eggs annually.”
It is a poverty alleviation programme directed at the rural population, supplement family incomes and provide nourishment. The opposition parties in the country had mocked the ‘Murghi Paal’ scheme but Imran Khan had strongly defended it, saying, “For the colonised minds when desis talk about chickens combating poverty they get mocked, but when “walaitis” talk about desi chicken and poverty it’s brilliance!”
Khan had shared a news report where Bill Gates was advocating chickens as a solution to poverty.