Roque Dias | NT

Margao

Even a year after ‘The Navhind Times’ broke the story on excessive content of formalin in fish sold in Goa, there is no sign of fish testing labs that the government had promised to restore people’s faith with people continuing to consume fish unchecked for formalin content.

Also, the government endeavour to make fish testing kits easily available has not yet become a reality. The whole control of testing the fish is in the hands of the director of Food and Drug Administration.  

“It is the need of the hour that the government initiate firm measures to resort confidence in the people that the fish available is safe which may also include stern action against perpetrators,” said advocate Rajiv Gomes, who had filed the case in the court soon after a team led by FDA official Iva Fernandes detected formalin in fish at the wholesale fish market on July 12. The case is sub-judice.

With pressure mounting from all quarters including the Opposition, the state government had banned the import of fish for some days with sporadic fish testing done at the wholesale fish markets, border areas and at the entry points. Some fish eaters had stopped consuming fish, which is the staple diet of Goans.

Most fish markets were deserted for some days after the controversy broke out and the business was slack. The wholesale fish traders association and the government were involved in a blame game and within days people started slowly visiting the markets. It was at this time that the government had proposed a state-of-the-art fish-testing lab at the retail fish market with a grand function and at the hands of the Union minister Suresh Prabhu, a two-room office of SGPDA near retail fish market was handed over to the Export Inspection Agency.

Simultaneously, the process of opening a FDA office for South was started. The 2013 demand of FDA office was reiterated once the formalin-in-fish issue rocked the state. The state government spent Rs 89 lakh for setting up FDA’s South Goa office in the old collectorate building and it would be inaugurated by August 15, this year.

Reliable sources revealed that there will be no provision for fish testing facilities even though 39-odd staff would be designated.   

A visit by this reporter to the office, where works are going on, confirmed that there is no provision made for fish testing labs, but provision of refrigerators and coolers is made to store the samples, which the complainant brings, and later it would be sent to the parent office for testing.

The two-room premises provided to the Export Inspection Agency at the SGPDA market area to set up the much-needed fish-testing lab is said to be cramped. The said lab is now proposed at the wholesale fish market where GSIDC is constructing the new wholesale fish market.

The Export Inspection Agency is reportedly allocated 700 sq mts of land. But according to Fatorda MLA and deputy chief minister Vijai Sardesai, it will take one more year to see the fish testing lab. Till then the people will have to consume unchecked fish and 
fruits.

Benaulim legislator Churchill Alemao alleged that the government is neglecting common man and working in the interest of fish mafia. 

Joe Pereira of Margao, who is a regular fish eater, said, “The people are still perplexed why the government is unable to set up a fish testing lab even after a year.”