MRP violations on the rise in city East Godavari

Kakinada: The maximum retail price (MRP) and packing rule violations are on the rise in East Godavari. The MRP Act said to be in violation mostly in cinema theatres, railway stations and bus stations.

Several consumers and consumer associations expressed their opinion that the concerned department is taking name sake actions by imposing cash penalties and the traders are habituated repeating the same old practice due to lack of stringent punishments.

Consumer welfare association secretary D Ramona Raju observed that in cinema theatres especially in multiplex theatres the MRP violations are noticed more. For one litre water bottle, they charge Rs 20 to Rs 25 against MRP of Rs 17. Similarly they charge Rs 15 to Rs 20 for a potato chips packet of 28 grams against the MRP of Rs 10.

They charge Rs 20 for a soft drink bottle of 300 ml against the MRP of Rs 13. For packed foods, the traders completely ignore the packing commodity rule of mentioning date of packing, weight, name of the manufacturer and batch number. They simply warp the eatable in the polythene cover with no botheration of MRP rule.

East Godavari district Legal Metrology deputy controller MSN Madhuri denied that the department is not acting on MRP violations and on packing rule violations. "We booked 69 cases during the year 2018-19 on cinema theatres and 778 cases for packing rule violations and collected penalties from the theatres and from traders to the tune of Rs 10 lakh.

During last two years, out of total staff strengths of six, three posts are lying vacant in East Godavari. We requested the government to fill these vacancies with immediate effect as the shortage hitting our work at district level," the DC clarified.