A Division bench of the Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) comprising of former District Judges Desmond D’Costa and Pramod Kamat today directed the government to submit a status report on the assurance given in the Legislative Assembly that the powers of Food & Drugs Officer (FDA) Iva Fernandes would be restored.
When the complaint of work related harassment that was filed by Iva Fernandes came up for hearing today, Adv. Aires Rodrigues representing her drew the attention of the GHRC that despite FDA Minister Vishwajit Rane having assured the Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao during the session of the Goa Legislative Assembly that Iva Fernandes’s powers as Designated officer would be restored she continues to be divested of those powers. The next hearing will be on August 28th.
Iva Fernandes in her complaint to the GHRC has alleged that undue and blatant harassment was meted out to her by FDA Director Jyoti Sardesai after she raided the Wholesale Fish Market at Margao on 12th July 2018 and detected formalin laced fish.
Iva Fernandes also accused Director Jyoti Sardesai of very high-handedly persecuting her for upholding the law and not succumbing to external pressures.
Pointing out that the Director had kept her out from all the meetings held with food safety enforcement staff, Iva Fernandes has further accused the Director of crawling to help the fish mafia who were supplying adulterated seafood while endangering the lives of the public.
Iva Fernandes also stated that as part of the harassment meted out to her she 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. Iva Fernandes stated that she was singled out for discrimination when all other applications for LTC from the Gazette Officers in the department were cleared.
