MARGAO
Strange it may seem but true that when most Madgavkars and Fatordekars remain fast asleep in their homes, the city receives the consignment of chapatis and paneer from across the border via inter-state buses in the wee hours of the day almost every day.
Wednesday, however, turned out to be different and it’s not known whether a drive by officials of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) officials caused a shortage of chapatis and paneer in the market.
For, FDA officials maintained a vigil outside the Margao KTC Bus stand in the wee hours of Wednesday and intercepted inter-state buses dropping consignments of chapatis and paneer alongside the road in the city.
An FDA official Richard informed that the raid conducted under the leadership of Rajiv Korde saw inter-state buses bringing consignment of chapattis and paneer in the city from across the border.
The raids at Margao come against the backdrop of similar raids conducted by FDA officials at the Mapusa bus stand, unearthing the import of chapatti and paneer consignment into the state from outside the state.
“We found a lot of discrepancies in the consignment containing chapattis and paneer. There were discrepancies in the label declaration. Claims have been made misleading the public. It was pointed out that the products were low-cholesterol products without any scientific data. The consignments have licence numbers, but it was later found that the licences of these units had expired,” he said, adding that the traders will be told to take corrective steps before bringing the product to the market.
The value of chapatis was pegged around Rs 27,000 and paneer Rs 25,000.
The FDA team also took cognizance of the fact that the inter-state buses had just dropped the consignment alongside the road. “This practice is unhygienic, more so in the rainy season,” he said, adding that the traders will have to follow the stipulated storage conditions.
