Team Herald
PANJIM: Stepping up safety standards towards manufacturing and selling ‘pao,’ North Goa Collectorate has issued strict instructions that bicycles used by ‘poders’ will now have to be compulsorily registered with the concerned panchayats or municipalities. The rule, an official said, always existed but rarely implemented.
“Poders like the toddy tappers have unique identity across the country. It needs to be preserved for which certification is a must. The Collectorate will soon issue a notification in this regard wherein bicycles carrying huge baskets of pao/poli will have to get registered with the panchayats or municipalities,” a senior official told Herald.
Similarly, the district magistrate is set to crackdown on bakeries which are illegally operating in different parts of the State. The directions on Wednesday came in the wake of several consumers complaining of being cheated.
“When the consumers complain of cheating, there is no authority they can approach because the store/bakery from where the produce is purchased is not registered. This is the reason the Collectorate has insisted on registration,” Roland Martins of NGO GOACAN told Herald emerging from a meeting chaired by the district magistrate Agnelo Fernandes and attended by officials representing Food & Drugs Administration, Health Services, Legal Metrology, Directorate of Panchayats and other concerned agencies.
The owners of the unregistered bakeries have been issued show cause notices for certification failing which the government will be forced to order its closure.
Soon a subcommittee will be formed to examine all the aspects covering the interests of the pao and bread manufacturers, sellers and the consumers. “The step is to ensure safe practices are adopted to prepare pao and bread, and moreover consumers are not cheated in terms of quality and price,” Martins said.
In another move, the health and FDA officials will inspect the premises to check for hygiene, and proper implementation of safety and health standards.
