MARGAO: Appealing to the government to give responsibility of formalin issue to Iva Fernandes, Goa Congress Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar decried Maulana Ibrahim from blaming the Congress Party for creating “formalin scare” among Goans.
“It was the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) team that tested fish on July 12, 2018 and found the samples positive for formalin and later in the evening the same FDA changed its stance that the level was permissible, even though formalin is totally banned in food products in India and there can be no permissible limits,” he said.
He asserted that it was the FDA that raked up the formalin issue and it was worsened with influential persons including ministers calling up FDA officials and others to alter the reports. “I am making this statement, because we have information obtained under RTI about the calls made to FDA officials,” he said.
He said that Goans have lost confidence that the fish sold in the market is safe. Therefore, he said, as the principal opposition party, the Congress has a duty to raise issues affecting the people.
Alleging that Maulana Ibrahim was responsible for bringing pressure on ministers and other officials, Girish said that people have lost confidence in the FDA, because its Director Jyoti Sardessai readily bows down to pressure.
“We would appeal to the government to let Iva Fernandes handle the entire formalin issue as the people of Goa trust her and are confident that she would not bow down to pressure,” he said adding that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s illness should have spurred the government to conduct the study.
“Parrikar is a self-confessed fish lover who even said that he had repeatedly come down to Goa from Delhi, because of his love for fish; and he too is suffering from cancer as mentioned by the health minister,” he said.
Girish said that transporting fish in insulated trucks was not safe; rather, the traders should use refrigerated trucks, as is done for transporting ice creams, so that the temperature remains at -22 to -26 degrees.
