Legal Metrology Dept. officials get back enforcement powers

Government revokes 2016 restriction

Lifting an earlier order of July 2016 that had restricted enforcement activities among officials in the Legal Metrology Department, the government has now allowed them to conduct inspection and enforcement again.

The restriction had been put in place following allegations of harassment against officials of the department, which, however, led to a decline in inspections and collection of fines, sources in the department said.

Collections down

According to sources, after the restriction, collection of fines which was ₹6.69 crore in 2015-16 dropped to less that ₹3.5 crore the following year as enforcement activities was restricted to 10 squads.

“Verification and enforcement was bifurcated. Just about 20 officers had the enforcement power. The number of inspections, cases, and fines drastically declined after July 2016 as only a few officers were in charge of a large geography,” department sources said.

Dip in inspections

While an average of 34,000 inspections were taken up annually, this dipped to less than 20,000 inspections, sources said. “In Bengaluru, of about one lakh autos plying on the street, nearly 32,000 are plying without verified meters. In the city alone, we had collected about ₹1 crore as fine by checking 15,000 autos before the restriction came into place.”

However, the order on January 4 this year has restored the enforcement powers to all the 146 officers — 39 assistant controllers and 107 inspectors — across the State.