Vijai pitches for officer Iva to head FDA unit in wholesale fish market

the goan I network

MARGAO

Is Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) officer Iva Fernandes, whose exposure of fish laced with formalin at the wholesale fish market in July last had triggered a huge row on the quality of fish imported into Goa, back to head the FDA unit in the wholesale fish market?

TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai on Friday told the media that he has requested Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to designate Iva Fernandes as the FDA officer in-charge of the wholesale fish market to test fish brought into the wholesale fish market for sale. And, Sardesai said that he has no doubt that the Health Minister will oblige him by deputing Iva Fernandes in the wholesale fish market. 

“I have told the Health Minister that Iva should be stationed in the market. Citizens have been insisting that Iva should be deployed in the wholesale fish market to test the fish. And, so were the wholesale fish traders. There’s a possibility that Iva’s presence in the wholesale fish market may help restore the confidence of the people in fish sold in the market,” 

he said.

Underlining the need for the authorities to take quick measures, Sardesai said that one measure which would help restore confidence of the people in the fish is to appoint Iva to head the FDA unit in the wholesale market.

“The government does not want to prolong this issue. We also want a quick solution, but at the same time, high quality standards need to be followed in the market. The PDA will ask the traders to comply with the FDA guidelines and come before the PDA for the NOC, after which the Authority will take a decision,” he said.

The TCP Minister’s statement assumes significance as it comes against the backdrop of the fact that the state-of-the-art laboratory to be set up in Goa will take six months to take shape. It further assumes significance given that the tourism industry has been insisting on the resumption of fish import to the growing needs of the visiting tourists.

Sardesai told the FDA Director that the FDA should continue testing the fish in the wholesale fish market till the state-of-the-art laboratory to be set up by the Export Inspection Agency under the Ministry of Commerce and 

Industry, Government of India will take six months to 

take shape.

Iva is presently doing her regular 

duties at Bambolim: FDA Director

MARGAO: Where is Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Officer Iva Fernandes after her exposure of the formalin in fish row had kicked off a storm in the State in July last?

When this question was posed to FDA Director Jyoti Sardesai in the presence of TCP Minister  Vijai Sardesai at the SGPDA market on Friday, the Director said that Iva is attached to the FDA’s lone office at Bambolim doing her regular duties as usual. “The FDA office has only one office at Bambolim and Iva is working in the office doing her regular duties as usual,” Sardesai said.

When the media sought to know whether the wholesale fish traders will be issued the permission to import fish into the State, Sardesai said the traders will have to comply with the August 2 circular, mandating the traders to transport the fish in insulated vehicles and should possess the transporter’s licence as well as trading licence.