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Cases filed against 17 cement dealers in India

Aug, 10 2012

(India)  --  The Labour department officials have filed cases against 17 cement dealers in the city of Madurai, India, after a surprise raid at their shops revealed that the cement bags they were selling weighed less than their original weight.

The raid was carried out on Wednesday night after the department received complaints from the public and consumer forums about discrepancies in the weight of the cement bags sold by dealers.

N Govindan, assistant commissioner of the labour department said,
"When we weighed the cement bags in the shops in front of the dealers, we found that the 50 kg bag weighed only 48 kg and in many shops, there were discrepancies, in the weight. We have found such discrepancies in 17 shops out of the 62 that we raided and have filed cases against them under the Legal Metrological Act 2009, rules 2011.”

Each team carried an electronic weighing machine to conduct the spot inspection.

Many dealers claimed that such discrepancies have occurred for the first time and attributed faulty packaging as the reason.

"They told us that the weight loss could have occurred due to the use of hooks which cannot be accepted as the end customer pays for the 50 kg. Hence, we have filed cases against all 17 shops where the discrepancies were found and further measures will be taken by the department. We will be conducting more raids in the coming days," Govindan said.

The dealers also told the officials that they would take up this issue with the manufacturers and inform the packing units about the weight discrepancies.

By: Rashmi Kalia (ARI-C NEWS)

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