VRISHANK MAHATME
PANJIM: From roadside fish vendors to fish and meat stalls, consumers are falling preys to vendors cheating them on weight; and for years the unethical practices by vendors have been giving customers 100-200 grams less per kilogram of fish or meat.
Herald visited the Panjim fish market on Tuesday, and saw vendors heap a measure (vantto) of fish on a metallic plate, then gently tap it from below, causing part of the contents to slide off leaving the buyer with less than the original amount. Herald also saw vendors adding water to the fish, to increase the weight which in turn reduces the quantity of the fish.
Local resident Vijay Khanna said, “Fish vendors are cheating us completely. On an average customers go home with 25 percent less quantity, due to the amount of water content and tapped metallic plates. When the vendors are questioned, they abuse us with rough language and say that take it if you want or go away.”
Fish and meat vendors stopped the Herald team from checking the calibration of their scales, which have to be on zero according to government standards. They asserted that this type of malpractice does not occur here.
“As per the Legal Metrology rules, it is mandatory to renew the weights every two years. However, the weights used by most of the vendors are not renewed which hampers the quantity of weighed vegetables, fish or meat,” a local, who did not want to reveal his identity, told Herald.
Vendors also kept the weighing machines away from the direct line of sight of the customers. One fish vendor told the Herald team that the metallic plates are tapped from below, as the quantity will decrease and they can make more money. The vendor also mentioned that plate tampering has been going on for years.
“This is clear cheating, the measure (vantto) and weighing machine are tampered with, which in turn gives the vendors an advantage to earn more. Even the vantto is filled with water, so that the weight increases. It’s very sad to see this and the trend should change,” says Leena Astekar who was shopping in the market.
Afroz Bepari, who runs a butcher shop at the Panjim market brought to Herald’s notice that digital machines are hard to tamper, but the beam scale can easily be altered without customers knowing they have been cheated. He said these malpractices are still going on.
Sources told Herald that fish vendors use unauthorized weighing scales not approved by the Legal Metrology Department. The authorities have, however, ruled out such malpractices.
Speaking to Herald, Legal Metrology Officer (Tiswadi) Nitin Purushan said, “We regularly carry out routine checks at the Panjim Market and we are confident that 90-95 percent of the weighing machines are verified. The measure system (vantto) doesn’t fall in the Legal Metrology Act, thus forcing us not to act on fish vendors.”
Speaking further he said that since Herald had brought it to his notice that fish vendors add water to increase the weight, their inspectors will carry out an inspection and anyone found cheating would be fined.
“The buyer should force the vendor to check the weight in front of them, thus reducing the risk of cheating, if the buyer finds that they are cheated they should report it to us,” he added
As per data furnished by the inspector in the past two-and-a-half years, there has been a decrease in cheating cases, as weighing machines have gone digital, but on the other hand the vantto system leads to people being cheated.
