Call for rules governing
transportation of poi, pao
The Goan Network
PANAJI
To ensure that Goa’s much loved breads “ poi and pao “ reach consumers in hygienic condition, Roland Martins, co-ordinator, GOACAN, has said that the state government should come out with some framework or rules to govern the transportation of poi and pao.
Martins met Agnelo Fernandes, North Goa collector, to apprise him on the subject. Also present during the meeting were officials from Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), Health Department and also Legal Metrology Department.
This issue has become particularly important ever since some bakeries increased the price of poi and pao a few months back. Some shops sell these breads for Rs 5 a piece and some at Rs 4 a piece.
In such a situation, unscrupulous elements may supply poi/pao at less price by not investing much in baking and transportation. This gets further encouraged by the fact that there are no legal provisions as of now governing transportation of poi/pao.
To this end, Martins suggested, “Cycles should fix a patti, which should mention the name of the bakery and the contact number as well. This will help in knowing whether the bread is coming from a registered bakery or not.”
Apparently, there are a number of unregistered bakeries in Goa, which pose a threat to consumers.
FDA is supposed to keep a tab on bakeries, but Martins was of the view that all departments like panchayats, municipality, health and legal metrology should join forces for this purpose. Collector Fernandes has given time till December 21 to all these departments to submit action taken report on this matter.
Martins also lamented that neither panchayats nor municipal bodies are paying enough attention to the transportation aspect of poi/pao
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Box: Director of Panchayat skips the meeting
• Director of Panchayat did not attend the meeting which collector of North Goa had with GOACAN and several other departments
• North Goa collector, Agnelo Fernandes, said that he will issue a memo asking director of panchayats why he did not attend the meeting
• Panchayats are extremely important as a very high number of bakeries making poi and pao are in villages of Goa
