PONDA: Ponda residents on Wednesday were left fuming following the alleged sale of maggot-infested mackerels in the retail market and demanded action against the agents for supplying such stale fish to vendors thereby putting the lives of Goans at risk.
The incident came to light in the market when a customer raised alarm by showing the mackerels, he purchased, were maggot-infested.
Bhramadev Kharvi from Nirankal, Bethora who purchased the maggot-infested fish addressing the media said he purchased mackerels for Rs 50 from a fish vendor in Ponda market and returned home. While cleaning the fish, he found maggot in all the mackerels and immediately rushed back to the market but was surprised to see that the fish vendor had left. And inquiring of his whereabouts with other vendors, they said the vendor had left after selling the fish.
After contacting the media, he showed the maggot-infested mackerels to the other fish vendors and the crowd.
He said there should be some system in market to check the fish quality.
Angry locals claimed that fish sold in the market goes unchecked at the border check post and accused the agents and vendors of looting customers by making money by providing them with stale fish. They blamed the government for not having a system in place to control such agents and check the fish quality.
When questioned, some fish vendors feigned ignorance on maggot-infested fish as most claimed that they sell the fish purchased from the agents on a regular basis and never sell the left out fish the next day.
Mahesh Naik, a consumer accused the government of playing with lives of people by allowing the sale of maggot-infested fish without proper checks.
Another local Sushant Kavlekar, said fish lovers were slowly returning at market to buy fish after the formalin issue but today after witnessing maggots in mackerels he is an fix whether to consume fish or not and blamed the government for such chaos.
“Why should we rely on fish vendors who always claim to sell fresh fish? We are buying fish at exorbitant rates and still we are supplied with maggot-infested fish. He said there is only solution is to stop import and export of fish in Goa to ensure people get fresh fish from Goan fishermen.
