MARGAO: A day after the early Thursday morning raid at Goa’s lone wholesale fish market, FDA officials were conspicuous by their absence at the market on Friday.
Even as fish loving Goans thought that the FDA will launch a concerted daily drive to check the quality of fish imported into the state, there was no sign of the FDA officials nor the vehicle carrying the testing kits at the market on Friday morning, making citizens wonder whether the test carried out in the market on Thursday was just a random one.
When The Goan called up FDA Director Jyoti Sardesai to find out why the officials did not turn up at the wholesale fish market on Friday, she was quick to point out that the FDA only conducts random checking of the various markets and not restrict to the wholesale fish market.
When her attention was drawn to the fact that fish in the wholesale fish market comes from across the state borders almost everyday, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) director said the staff and officials employed with the agency go to different markets and their activities are not restricted to one single market. “Besides fish, our officials also conduct checks on the quality of fruits as well,” Sardesai said, while conceding that the FDA only conducts checks at random.
