Her’s was not a name that many in Goa had heard until one day in July last year she made it to the front page of every newspaper in the State. It happened when the news broke out and spread throughout the State in a matter of hours that a team of FDA officers had tested fish that had been brought into Goa by trucks from outside the State and traces of formalin had been discovered in them. By evening the formalin tests had been negated and word went out that the amount of the chemical was ‘within permissible levels’.
If the Goenkar was left gaping in disbelief that day, what transpired later has left him astounded. Shockingly, the villains of the piece that transpired that monsoon day in Margao are not those who have preserved the fish by using formalin, but the officer who led the team and tested the fish at the market place. A year later, Fernandes, who should have been awarded for her enterprising act of testing the fish for formalin, finds herself fighting a battle against the establishment that sweeps aside the good work she has done and keeps faith in the fish traders bringing in fish from outside.
In the past year, Fernandes has alleged harassment by the government and even approached the Goa Human Rights Commission on the matter. In her petition, the lady officer has demanded that the phone records of the Department’s senior officials be examined as this would establish their links with the fish traders who use formalin to preserve fish. It is a year later, but no such examination has ever been conducted, instead an inquiry was ordered on the test conducted by Fernandes. A spot test that had proved positive for formalin was discredited, and the person who conducted it, also faced the same treatment.
If an honest officer who refused to change her findings and her opinions on a test that she carried out can be harassed by the government, and those who use a carcinogenic chemical to preserve fish that is sold in the market go free, can we even imagine to what level our Goem and our Goenkarponn has descended to?
The whiff of formalin in fish that rudely jolted the Goenkar pales in comparison to the manner in which the officer who conducted the fish test has been treated. This has the choking stink of harassment. The government, instead of acting against the fish-formalin mafia, is acting against an officer who exposed the practice of lacing fish with formalin. In its most recent of acts, the government has replaced Fernandes as the FDA officer in charge for South Goa. This comes despite demands from opposition parties and the people that Fernandes be appointed in Margao to specifically check the quality of the fish.
The confidence in the people that the government will act in their interest gets clouded when there are examples such as this. It also shakes the resolve of other upright officers who would be doing their job by the rule book. The government has to reconsider the decision to replace Iva. This will go a long way in demonstrating to the people that it has the interests of the Goenkars uppermost. It is a little gesture that will have a big payback, rekindling in the people the belief that the government works for them. Goenkarponn should be not merely a word to be bandied about, but a standard by which to live. It should indeed be the way of life of every Goenkar.
