Traders in Shillong, it appears, have been given a virtual free hand by the State Weights & Measures Department. With practically little surveillance maintained by the department, the traders are having a field day at the expense of the consumers.
Knowledgeable circles believe that half of the traders in Shillong either donot have the prescribed scales and measurement devices or are culprits of manipulating the scales.
The consumers sadly lack in consciousness. They usually make their purchases in good faith, seldom realizing how they are being taken for a ride by the cunning traders. Be it the grocer’s shop or the fish and vegetable stalls the tale is the same. By an expert maneuver of the scales the shopkeepers either increase the weight or decrease depending, upon what the item is.
There are a number of shops in Bara Bazar, which are openly violating the Weights and Measures regulations. Some of the stalls use such ridiculous stuff as a small stone chip in lieu prescribed weights. Many of the stalls donot even observe the modicum of official regulation; all the stalls are required to suspend their scales from a fixed point. Instead the shopkeepers use their expert hands each time a customer buys a commodity.
Irate consumers complain bitterly about the non-performance of the Weights & Measures Department. It is alleged that there has been total lack of initiative on the part of the Department to carry out surprise checks at the various trading centres.