Reza Mahmud :
They were shinning…looking so lively. Their silver bodies with red border-lining were dazzling in the daylight. The gorgeous punti fish were kept in an aluminum bowl for display to attract the customers at the ‘footpath bazar’ in front of Bangladesh Bank in the city’s Motijheel area.
The home-goers after office are showing interest to buy some of those. They think it would be a delicious dish in the dinner. Some of them were also nostalgic…. remembering their childhood memories of their village ponds, where catching punti fish by small net or ‘gamchha’ was a common scenario. In their early days, it was also a very popular sport to celebrate ‘puntir biye’ [‘marriage of punti’] in the rainy seasons. In this pre-nuptial stage, it is believed that the fishes will be very tasty to eat.
It’s a sweet water fish. The scientific name of punti fish is Putinus. A full-aged Punti fish becomes 25 cm or 10 inches long. Usually, the fish is available in the water bodies of south Asia and Southeast Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India and Maldives. So, these types of fish is not very uncommon in this city.
But it was a fake exposition, not real! They were all rotten or substandard fishes. Some dishonest traders mixed chemicals and colours to give the fishes a lively look. The red-border lines were also not genuine! They were drawn with coloured pencils to catch buyers. They were not sellers; they were cheats.
Md Azimuddin, an official of a private bank, bought two kilograms of punti fish at the rate of per kg Tk 350. He took the fish to his home to make a special item for the Iftar. But after sometime, the fishes started changing its colour. The silver shining went missing and the red-border lines were melted. Being afraid of possible health hazards, Aziamuddin threw the fishes to the dustbin. He arranged another item for his dinner.
“I and two of my colleagues bought some punti fishes from in front of Bangladesh Bank at Motijheel on Wednesday afternoon. The sellers said us that those fishes were from river water and organically grown. We saw the fishes very lively and shinning. But when washed those after taking home, the water turned red and the red stripe of the fishes were vanished. The shinning fishes also turned into fade,” said, Jamil Haidar, an NGO official from Motijheel.
In fact, the consumers frequently buy these types of fishes almost regularly in different places, and they become victim of dishonest traders each and every day. It’s a regular phenomenon in the ‘footpath bazars’ in the city.
Several people alleged that the fraud fish seller use water hyacinth in their baskets to deceive the people. ‘They frequently said that their fishes from river or lake and other water bodies. Some of them also claim that they are not trader but originally fishermen and their fishes were lively and free from chemicals, like formalin,’ the sufferers also alleged.
Actually, they are cheats by profession. They usually collect partially rotten indigenous types of fishes from fish markets. Then they use formalin, shinning chemicals and other colours to give the fishes lively and shinning look. Then they keep the fishes in their baskets with some water hyacinths.
They often chose road- intersections, footpaths near busy street or offices after the office times from afternoon to night. Sometimes, they are also seen going door to door in posh areas like Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani and Dhanmondi.
It is learnt that, they used to sell only indigenous fishes from little punti to large-size Salmon [Rui], Carp [Katal], Sheat fish [Boal] and Air fishes. But they carefully avoid selling foreign species of fishes to gain trust of the people.
There is a widespread allegation that selling of adulterated fishes is still rampant despite frequent drives of mobile courts against formalin and harmful chemical mixed foods and fruits. But those cheat fish sellers stay beyond touch of mobile courts and even from police due to unknown reason.
Dishonest traders are using alarming rate of health hazardous formalin, textile colours and juice of okra to make fishes, particularly indigenous varieties, look fresher for longer with a view to deceiving the people.
They polish fishes with okra juice, put red textile colours in the fish gills and formalin on the body raising concern among the people across the country, mostly the city dwellers, it was alleged.
