PANJIM: Congress on Wednesday asked Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to stop threatening ‘activists exposing Food & Drugs Administration’ over the formalin scare and demanded a stop to fish imports till mechanisms are in place to accurately test the stock.
“Rane should also stop threatening activists exposing FDA with FIR he has failed to register even a single FIR on fish mafia and the seizure of trucks. The government should have actually suspended the FDA Director for pressuring upright officials to refrain from sealing vehicles by using the phone of one of the accused. We reiterate our stand of our demand to ban the import of fish till safety measures are in place so that Goans can enjoy local fish for which over hundreds of crores of rupees subsidies is spent from the tax-payers’ money,” Congress State president Girish Chodankar demanded.
“I would like to assert that no amount of intimidation by Rane will stop our party from exposing the malpractices, misleading tactics and eyewash test conducted in collusion with persons in power particularly with regards to the fish trade,” he said, demanding a CBI/judicial probe into the matter.
Congress workers had conducted a rapid test of fish at Margao fish market and claimed to have detected formalin, an allegation vehemently denied by the minister who also conducted a separate rapid test with the experts.
