MARGAO: Fish loving Goans received a mighty scare on July 12 last year when the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), acting on a tip off, raided the wholesale fish market at Margao and tested the fish in 17 vehicles that had come from across the State only to discover that there was formalin in the fish.
This triggered a war of words with a lot of bravado and also some action, but unfortunately one year down the line and people have still not gained confidence in the fish that is available in the market and the authorities have failed to provide testing facilities in the market.
In fact former chief minister Churchill Alemao whose family is involved in the fish trade advised people to resort to what the ancestors did by not eating fresh fish during the monsoons and instead rely upon dried fish or fish pickles such as ‘parra’.
The 17 vehicles that had tested positive for formalin one year ago had come from different States such as Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and even neighbouring Maharashtra. While the fish tested positive for formalin in the early hours at 4 am, later tests conducted at the FDA laboratory in Porvorim resulted in the authorities saying the formalin was within “permissible limits”.
This led to activists demanding to know what was “permissible limit?” and whether a preservative like formalin can be used to preserve food items and the faith that people lost in the fish available in the market is yet to be restored.
In fact, a local lawyer filed a case on July 30, 2018 only to withdraw it to file another one on October 19, 2018 against the Superintendent of Police South and Fatorda Police Inspector for failure to book the truck owners and drivers for supplying formalin laced fish to the Goans and the case is still going on in the courts.
President of Margao Retail Fish Vendors Association Felix Gonsalves says their business is yet to recover.
“The retail fish vendors are badly affected as our business is reduced to nearly half of what we used to do earlier,” he said.
He also lamented that the fish testing facility that was supposed to be made available in the market is yet to commence though the authorities are now testing the fish at the borders of Goa as it is being brought into Goa.
While initially the government banned fish imports for 15 days the same was subsequently extended for six months and fish imports started only towards the end of December last year and that too only in insulated vehicles while non-insulated vehicles are sent back from the borders.
Political parties were quick to capitalise on the issue too with the Congress Party testing the fish sole in the retail market and as some of it tested positive panic set in and people refused to purchase fish resulting in the fish vendors turning against the Congress Party.
Churchill Alemao, who represents the Nationalist Congress Party, too joined in demanding that people be provided safe and unadulterated fish and along with the Congress Party demanded action against the person responsible for this.
Mickey Pacheco called for a total ban on importing fish and said since the government had spent around Rs 160 crore in providing subsidy to the 837 trawlers registered in Goa, the fish caught by these trawlers should be sold to the Goans.
All sections blamed Ibrahim Maulana who was the president of Margao Wholesale Fish Market Association to be responsible for providing formalin laced fish to the Goans as it was alleged that he started importing fish from the eastern States of Andhra Pradesh, Chennai and Orissa when fishing was banned in Goa due to the onset of South West monsoons.
However, Maulana while clarifying that he imports fish which is taken directly to his fish processing unit and not sold in the market, demanded that fish testing laboratory be set up in the whole sale market to allay people’s fears.
The plaque for setting up a fish testing laboratory was unveiled by Union Minister Suresh Prabhu in the presence of then minister Vijai Sardessai and Food and Drugs Administration Minister Vishwajit Rane. Then he had said that the laboratory would be functioning by May this year, but it is yet to commence operations though we are in July and the office is perpetually closed.
Vijai who was at the forefront in dealing with this issue reiterates that it is a genuine issue raised by the public and that it was due to his efforts the laboratory was set up in the SGPDA market.
Further, he said that he was instrumental in getting the SGPDA to allot required land at the Wholesale Fish Market to set up a laboratory for which the tenders are likely to be floated very shortly.
“Now it is the duty of the government to set up this laboratory and ensure that the food consumed by the Goans is actually food and not poison,” he said.
