Roadside fish vendors to proper fish and meat markets, the general
public falls prey to unethical cases by vendors of cheating them on weights and
it’s been years this magical trick is giving you 100-200 grams less per
Kilogram (KG).
As Herald visited Panjim fish market, it was revealed that fish vendors
would heap a measure (Vanto) on a metallic plate, which is then tapped gently
from below, causing the original contents to diminish, as compared to the
original amount.
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It was also witnessed that vendors would add amount of water into the
measure, to increase the weight which in turn diminishes the amount of the
final weight.
A local resident, Vijay Khanna had to say this “fish vendors are
cheating us completely, on an average the 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 if u want or go away”
On the other hand the fish and meat vendors completely stopped our team
from checking calibration of the scales, which has to be on zero according to
the Government standards, saying that this type of malpractices do not take
place 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”, says a
local who did not want to reveal his identity
It was also noticed that the vendors purposely kept the weighing
machines behind, thus tempering the customers view from front, while one fish
vendor directly told our team that these metallic plates are tapped from below,
as the quantity will decrease thus we can make more money, and also mentioned
plate tempering has been going on since many years now.
“This is clear cheating, the measure (Vanto) and weighing machine are
fully tampered with, which in turn gives them an advantage to earn more, even the
vanto is filled with water, so that the weight increases. It’s very sad to see
and this trend should change” says Leena Astekar
As per Afroz Bepari, who runs meat business, at the Panjim Market
brought it to our notice, digital machines are very hard to tamper, but the
beam scale can easily be played with and tampered with, without the customer knowing
that he has been cheated and informed that these malpractices are still carried
out.
Sources also told Herald, these fish vendors use unauthorized weighing
scales, which are not approved by the Legal Metrology Department, however the
authorities have ruled out such mal practices.
Speaking to Herald, Legal Metrology officer (Tiswadi Taluka), Nitin
Purushan stated 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 (Vanto) doesn’t fall in the Legal Metrology Act,
thus forcing us not to act on the fish vendors” said Parushan
Speaking further he said, as today your team has brought it to my
notice that fish vendors add water to increase the weight, our inspector will
definitely carry out an inspection and if anyone is found cheating, the vendor
will immediately 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 the data furnished by the inspector it was revealed that in the
past 2 and half years, there have been a decrease in cheating cases, as the
weighing machines have full gone digital, but on the other side Vanto system is
still cheating a large number of people.
