Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, March 4: Despite the Nagaland government banning sale of formalin-laced fish last year, reports about district authorities catching hold of the banned fish in the market have emerged recently.
Alarmed over the development, minister of Health and Family Welfare, S Pangnyu Phom on Monday conducted an emergency meeting with the district administration, department concerned, and “stakeholders” at the deputy commissioner's office in Dimapur.
According to Phom, in all the recent incidents at Kohima, Mokokchung, Zunheboto and Wokha markets, the fish caught were found to have been injected with formalin and without certification. He said that those fish consignment were “beyond” what was agreed between the state government and Andhra Pradesh.
However, the secretary of Andhra Pradesh Fish Traders, M Veera Satya who attended the meeting, denied that the fish were from Andhra Pradesh. He claimed that there were five companies supplying fish to Nagaland, and none of them inject banned substance.
Traces of formalin found in the recent consignment ‘can very well be the naturally occurring form of formalin and not added formalin’, he said. Satya suggested that Nagaland could send a delegation to inspect the process in Andhra Pradesh while asserting that they use the standard Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) detection kit.
‘While all the consignments originating from Andhra Pradesh meant for Nagaland are sealed, certified, and have no stoppage in between, there are also fish (consignments) entering from Assam and those are often the ones that are unsold in Assam and may contain formalin. Most of these enter through Mariani,’ said Satya.
The Food Safety Cell, however, argued that the process employed by the department is meant to detect only adulterated chemical, not naturally occurring formalin. They also maintained that the CIFT kit ‘only shows positive result if the content of formalin is equal or more than 4 ppm.’
Food Safety Officer, Samuel Zehol said the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011 clearly states that the content of formalin must be zero. “If there were a permissible limit according to the Act, we’d have followed that.”
Zehol agreed that fish in small unhygienic containers from Assam do find their way to Nagaland through buses and others “nonconventional modes.”
A representative of Dimapur police said that though police cannot test the fish, it will work with the administration to regulate those entering from Assam.
After listening to the inputs, Phom assured to “have a discussion” with the government of Andhra Pradesh and formulate plans to end the problem. He said that except for consignments certified by the Andhra Pradesh government, no other consignments will be allowed. He suggested that there should be only one entry point to Nagaland.
