PANAJI
The Margao Wholesale Fish Market Association (MWFMA) on Friday appealed to the government to re-consider its stand on enforcing the norm for “insulated trucks for the import of fish into Goa.”
A group of local people from the fishing business including many fish vendors from Margao, led by the president of the MWFMA Maulana Ibrahim, said that they were not trying to blackmail the government, but only appealing to it for a hearing on the issue.”The government is not willing to listen to us at all on how to resolve the formalin controversy,” said Ibrahim. “I may not have big degrees and certificates, but I know the ground situation. I know what is happening practically,” he told press people at a press conference held at Hotel Fidalgo, here, while saying that the government was not even giving them a chance to explain or redeem themselves.
Talking about the unrelenting stand of the government when it came to fish traders following the rules of the August 2 circular (insulated trucks and compulsory registration), Ibrahim said, “These self-employed people in the fish business are suffering today because of the formalin controversy. They’re not demanding anything from the government. We are asking the government to start testing fish immediately. But the focus should not be on insulated vehicles.”
Ibrahim urged the government to appoint any agency to test fish immediately. If the government takes another 10 days to do so, the local fish vendors would be out of business. If the same wasn’t done immediately, they’d be force to take to the streets in protest, he asserted.
The MWFMA slammed the government, and all the MLAs, for the financial losses and did not spare even the Opposition and NGOs. “Anyone can come at any time to the market to check fish. But please bring a qualified agency and come,” said Ibrahim.
He, however, spared Fatorda MLA and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai reiterating that he was the only one who had given them a ear. Ibrahim said that the reason they approached Vijai was because he was the MLA in whose constitution the market fell, besides being the only minister from South Goa.
The MWFMA called for exemption from “insulation” rule to trucks coming from Karwar and places falling within a radius of 200 kilometres from Margao.
