the goan I network
PANAJI
The Fisheries Department of the Goa government does not have any officer to test fish quality sold in local markets, the Goa legislative assembly was told on Thursday.
Fisheries Minister Vinoda Paliencar said: “The department does not have a technical officer to look after the quality of fish.”
Paliencar, in a written reply to a query tabled by Congress MLA Aleixo Reginald Lourenco, however said that the department is dependent on the Food & Drugs Administration and refers complaints on fish quality to that agency.
Question Hour got washed out on Thursday, the opening day of the Monsoon Session, with the Congress MLAs repeatedly demanding that their notice for adjournment motion on the ‘formalin in fish’ issue be taken up before any other business.
Speaker Pramod Sawant, however, quoted the rules of business and conduct of the House to rule that Question Hour cannot be suspended. It had little effect on the Congress MLAs led by Kavlekar who declined to call out their questions listed for the day and continued to raise their demand for taking up their adjournment motion first.
The logjam forced Sawant to adjourn the House four times as Kavlekar and others reached the well.
But Paliencar’s written replies to Lourenco and Kavlekar, as is the case with replies of all ministers to questions from Opposition and other MLAs listed in Thursday’s agenda, were already tabled in the House and part of its records now.
The government on Wednesday had imposed a 15-day ban on all fish imports into the State until August 3.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said at a specially convened press conference at the State Secretariat had said that the government had decided to ban fish imports to eliminate the problem of formalin entirely.
Parrikar said, the decision was taken as a measure of “abundant caution” since fish is a part of the staple food in Goa and the issue concerns public health.
