Goa has rightly rejected Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumarswamy’s request to lift the ban on fish imports, stating that it not a ban and all Goa is seeking are compliances from the fish traders. Kumarswamy in his letter addressed to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has sought that the ‘blanket ban’ on fish imports be withdrawn and promised that the fish traders from his State will comply with the regulations of the Food and Drugs Administration, but require more time for this, stating that the process has already been initiated in the coastal districts of the State. His request is that until the traders are able to obtain all the required documents, fish import be allowed in the State.
The Karnataka chief minister may perhaps have not been fully informed on the issue. It has to be rightly understood that Goa has not placed any ‘blanket ban’ on fish imports from any State. All that Goa has done is brought in systems to bring an end to the illegal transportation of fish from other states into Goa. If Karnataka’s fishermen meet the guidelines imposed by the Goa Food and Drugs Administration then nobody will stop their fish consignments at the border. Goa’s action is well within the law and it should not be asked to work outside the ambit of the legal framework by another State.
For decades the fish import business has not been regulated, with tonnes of fish being brought into the State and sold in the markets across Goa. People have been buying this fish, believing it to be fresh, with no knowledge from where it came. It is only after the formalin-in-fish scare of July this year that the State and the people have woken up to the dangers of such an unregulated business. After having taken some stringent measures to ensure the quality of the fish that is brought into the State, any move to amend the regulations to allow the free movement of fish across the State’s borders without meeting the standards, will raise fears of chemicals being laced in the fish yet again.
The State cannot afford to take this risk as fish sales have dropped in the local markets, and there is need to rebuild confidence in the people that the fish being sold is not tampered with by any chemicals. The health of the people is important and so is the State’s economy that depends quite heavily on tourism. Fish dishes being rather popular items on the menu, and Goa cannot jeopardize the delicate balance in the tourism industry, where even an unseemly incident can have snowballing repercussions on the tourist footfalls. Caution is the keyword here that just cannot be overstated.
All other States must understand that Goa is not being unreasonable in its stand. The government has been clear that it will consider the issues with the small-time fishermen of the villages from other States that border Goa and find a way to allow them to bring their catch in the State. These are fishermen who go fishing in canoes and get the fish to the market within a few hours of catching it. Yet, allowing them to do so can happen only after the fish testing systems are in place. It is time, therefore, to hasten the setting up of the laboratories to test the fish.
With that, it is also time to close the formalin-in-fish issue once and for all. It’s been over four months that this is being debated in Goa. Had the government take the strong stand at the time when the issue first surfaced, it might have ended at that point of time itself. The early changes in stand allowed the issue to fester, raising doubts in people’s minds. Any dilution of the stand now, will only serve to resurrect those doubts.
