the goan I network
PANAJI
The first Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) report made after the raid at the Margao Wholesale Fish Market to check the presence of formalin in fish has been made public for the first time since the whole July 12 fiasco.
AAP which obtained the first FDA report, charged the government and opposition with suppression of facts and deliberate destruction of evidence when it came to the formalin in fish issue.
AAP Goa Convenor, Elvis Gomes stated that the FDA had blundered by taking into consideration the views of a third party - M Ibrahim, and insisted that the threat of formalin in fish still loomed.
The 2-page hand-written report was obtained by the AAP under Right to Information Act 2005, and shown to mediapersons on Tuesday.
The report confirms the presence of formalin in the fish samples tested from all 17 trucks in the wee hours of the morning.
However, what is surprising to note in the report, was that it was only after M Ibrahim, President of the Wholesale Fish Market Association insisted that a second test be done, that the 5-member team from the FDA led by designated officer for South Goa, Iva Fernandes, sent samples for testing to the FDA laboratory.
The report states, “He (Ibrahim) insisted on the second analysis report from the FDA laboratory. Hence, samples as stated above are drawn for analysis along with us and carried in thermocol boxes to the FDA laboratory for testing. If agreed, we may await the analysis report.”
Why did the FDA, which is the government authority on food and drugs safety, depend on the urging of a third party to do a lab test? Does this mean, that if M Ibrahim had not urged the FDA team to do a lab test, that there would not have been one, thus making the results of the initial test final?
The results of the initial Schiff’s Reagent Test proved that “all the tested samples showed dark pink to purple colour which was considered as positive for formalin.” The testing was done by FDA’s chemist Pundalik Gawde.
The trucks carrying the fish were reported to be from neighbouring states of Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu for sale and distribution in Goa.
Gomes asked FDA director Jyoti Sardessai to reveal the truth about what happened between the first test and the second test, and what happened after the first report was revealed to her. “Who has muzzled her voice?” asked Gomes.
What is also noted from the FDA first report submitted to the FDA director, is that of the five-member team consisting of designated officer for South Goa Iva Fernandes, a senior food safety officer, and three other food safety officers, it appears that the head of the team - Iva Fernandes - has not signed on the report, as there is a blank space against her name.
The AAP had filed a letter of petition in the High Court in this regard in July, which they have now converted to a formal petition.
