Posers raised on ban on iced fish
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 05 2018:
All Manipur Fish and Egg Traders Association has urged the State Government, particularly the Food Safety Department to clarify when and from where it collected the alleged 17 fish samples out of which 6 tested positive for traces of formalin, to the people as well as the fish traders of the State at the earliest.
Speaking to media persons at Manipur Press Club today, the joint secretary of the association Aribam Sashikumar informed that the Department banned the sale of ice packed fish imported from outside the State, from June 29 and samples were collected from fish traders on July 2 .
Claiming that the number of fish samples collected by the Department were not 17, he asked from where the Department collected the remaining fishes.
He also urged the Department to clarify from where and when the six allegedly positive fish samples were collected.
Fish samples were also collected on May 30 last year but the report has not been published till date, he claimed and urged the Department to clarify whether it based the recent formalin test report on the samples collected last year or on the samples collected on July 2.He explained that the fish packages which come to Manipur are from five companies of Andra Pradesh.
After the Food Safety Department banned the sale of fish from June 29, none of the fish carrying transport is coming to Manipur.
For a State which consumes around 10,000 kgs of fish per day, no customer has arrived to buy fish now, he added.
On the other hand, he mentioned that even if the Department has banned the sale of fish, it has surprisingly not seized any of the fishes which are in stock.