Officials of the Legal Metrology and the Vigilance and Enforcement Departments cracked the whip on fish, mutton and chicken vendors across the State on Sunday.
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They found that some vendors were shortchanging customers by selling them meat of lesser weight than what the customers were paying for.
“As many as 178 chicken, fish and mutton vendors, who were deceiving customers by using non-standard (duplicate) weights and instruments without a seal and stamp of the Legal Metrology Department, were booked,” said Vigilance and Enforcement Additional Director General Shankha Brata Bagchi.
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“More than 100 teams conducted raids on meat vendors across the State on Sunday. The joint teams of the Vigilance and the Legal Metrology personnel inspected the functioning of over 500 traders and found that some of them were deceiving the customers,” Mr. Bagchi said.
Legal Metrology officials said that raids were conducted at all major fish and mutton markets in Eluru, Kakinada, Bhimavaram, Guntur, Machilipatnam, Rajamahendravaram, Nellore, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Ongole, Vijayawada and other places.
“Some vendors were deceiving the customers with duplicate balances and a few were cheating the public by using unsealed (non issued by the Legal Metrology Department) weights,” said an Inspector.
Cases were filed under Sections 25 and 30 of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009. The raids will continue, the officials said.
“If a customer procures 1 kg of fish, the vendor was giving fish weighing only 800 grams, but was collecting money for 1 kg. If the trader sold 5 kg or more, the difference would be of around 1 kg. Traders are deceiving the public of some lakhs of rupees every day,” said a customer B. Ramakrishna of Eluru.