R Fernandes
The Government has decided to use EIC to monitor fish imports ‘for formalin’! What about ammonia and sodium benzoate? What about the spoilage of fish? All these must also be tested, but the lab being set up is solely for testing for formalin only! What about ensuring proper nutritional value in the fish by enforcing compulsory refrigeration by blast freezing? If milk is transported in refrigerated vans why not fish? No need for wasting public money on new labs.
This whole exercise, as admitted by the promoters, is to ensure confidence in the public, not to ensure safety for the public. The stated objective itself is wrong, while the hidden objective is to absolve the criminal actions of those who have been poisoning the public for so many years. They want the public to have ‘confidence’ in the wholesale fish contractor of Goa.
It is imperative these traders are booked and not let off. Once a crook, always a crook. Financially, this is an extra burden on the tottering exchequer. Other States have taken a more pragmatic and financially non-burdening action of banning crooked and ignorant traders. The FSSAI has issued guidelines one of which is that traders must source from only credible sources. Why is the Government not informing the public who the crooked traders are? Why are they not telling us whether fish has been sourced from those traders who were caught by CIFT in other States? They are now playing ‘chor police’: the EIC is the Police. If they ’catch’ formalin in fish well and good, if not, our bad luck?
Commercial sense: fish coming from outside Goa has to be costlier than local caught fish because of the high transport cost. A two-tonne vehicle coming from Orissa non-refrigerated-costs Rs 66,000 one way; 20% of the weight is the weight of ice and containers.1.6 T @ 66000 means this fish is costlier by Rs 40 per Kg. With no formalin, some percentage of the fish will spoil. Under the present system, local fish must be sold to the wholesale contractor which means he sells the fish to traders at the same rate as imported fish; he controls the market. Imported fish will be marginally less as traders can see the same is not fresh. We need to change the system; locally sourced fish needs to be marketed by locals only, no middle man. This is the way forward.
While the country is gaga about Uniform Civil Code, why are other good measures followed in Goa not made applicable in the whole country? Fishing ban during breeding season and net sizes to ensure young fish is not caught? We want good governance; not political solutions.
