Even a year after ‘The Navhind Times’ broke the story on excessive content of formalin in fish sold in Goa, there is no sign of fish testing labs that the government had promised to restore people’s faith with people continuing to consume fish unchecked for formalin content.
Also, the government endeavour to make fish testing kits easily available has not yet become a reality. The whole control of testing the fish is in the hands of the director of Food and Drug Administration.  
“It is the need of the hour that the government initiate firm measures to resort confidence in the people that the fish available is safe which may also include stern action against perpetrators,” said advocate Rajiv Gomes, who had filed the case in the court soon after a team led by FDA official Iva Fernandes detected formalin in fish at the wholesale fish market on July 12. The case is sub-judice.
With pressure mounting from all quarters including the Opposition, the state government had banned the import of fish for some days with sporadic fish testing done at the wholesale fish markets, border areas and at the entry points. Some fish eaters had stopped consuming fish, which is the staple diet of Goans.
Most fish markets were deserted for some days after the controversy broke out and the business was slack. The wholesale fish traders association and the government were involved in a blame game and within days people started slowly visiting the markets. It was at this time that the government had proposed a state-of-the-art fish-testing lab at the retail fish market with a grand function and at the hands of the Union minister Suresh Prabhu, a two-room office of SGPDA near retail fish market was handed over to the Export Inspection Agency.