A full bench of the Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) comprising of former High Court Judge U.V. Bakre and retired District Judges Desmond D’Costa and Pramod Kamat today adjourned foe 15th December further final arguments into the complaint filed by Senior Food & Drugs Official Iva Fernandes over the undue and blatant harassment being met out to her by the Director of FDA Jyoti Sardesai after she raided the Wholesale Fish Market at Margao and detected formalin laced fish on 12th July 2018. With Adv. Rodrigues having concluded his arguments today the GHRC will hear the arguments of the Goa Government at the next hearing.
Iva Fernandes represented by Adv. Aires Rodrigues today argued that FDA Director Jyoti Sardesai had very high-handedly persecuted Iva Fernandes for having upheld the law against the Fish mafia and for not succumbing to external and political pressures.
Pointing out that the Director has kept Iva Fernandes out from all her routine duties and from meetings held with the Food safety enforcement staff, Adv. Rodrigues further accused the FDA Director of crawling to help the fish mafia who were supplying adulterated seafood while endangering the lives of the public.
Adv. Rodrigues also argued that Iva Fernandes as part of the harassment meted out to her was denied her rightful Leave Travel Concession (LTC) by rejecting at the last minute her application for permission to leave the headquarters thus causing her a financial loss of Rs. 34,592 on the travel tickets bought. Adv. Rodrigues further submitted that Iva Fernandes was singled out for discrimination when all other applications for LTC from the Gazette Officers in the department were promptly cleared.
