the goan I network
MARGAO
Asserting that nothing has changed at the ground level since the first FDA raid at the wholesale fish market, the Aam Aadmi Party has charged that the government has given freedom to “the agents of death” to take full advantage of Goa’s penchant for fish by exhibiting sheer incompetency in controlling the use of preservatives like formalin.
Terming the formalin checks done at the check post as a farce, AAP leaders Sidharth Karapurkar and Melvyn Pereira demanded that the government should institute a commission of inquiry headed by an eminent expert to allow people to depose so that a foolproof mechanism could be in place in future to protect the lives of the people. The duo said the government was not at all serious as otherwise by now, this case would have been investigated as a criminal offence.
“FDA should have lodged an FIR on the basis of the first tests which were found positive for the presence of formalin and if that was done so many people would have undergone interrogation which would have helped to unearth crucial information,” said AAP spokesperson and leader from Navelim Melvin Pereira. He charged that the Health Minister who had shown some determination to get to the root of the matter was now cowed down so as not to antagonise their coalition partner. “So in other words their political parties are above the life of the common man of Goa. They have to survive even if the common man dies,”
said Melvin.
Meanwhile AAP convenor Elvis Gomes charged that the filth, squalor and stink at the whole sale market, was a reflection of the faces of the Congress and BJP governments led by Pratapsingh Rane, Digambar Kamat and Manohar
Parrikar which have been ruling this State since the last over 15 years.
He said that it was time that the responsibility of the fish market should be entrusted to a special cell headed by Chairperson of MMC, Dr Babita Angle along with chairperson of the PDA and sarpanch of the Seraulim panchayat as members along with one member from the Opposition if any in the council and the panchayat. “PDA is mostly engaging in giving licences to buildings. MMC is better suited under law to look after markets. But given a situation where the PDA may not like to give up it’s monopoly, this suggestion should work,” said Elvis. He added that AAP would shortly come out with some positive suggestions to the government as it was proving to be incapable of handling the crises.
