Inspections carried out by District Monitoring Committee, Kaski, have revealed that the sale of adulterated, expired and unlabeled food commodities like rice, lentils, edible oil, ghee, and juice among others is rampant in the market.[break]
Market inspection teams sealed over 1,000 bags of substandard rice at three wholesale stores at Chorepatan. The teams sealed 430 bags of rice at Sumit Suppliers, 370 bags at Santosh Food Store and 206 bags at Nabin Store.
Gangabahadur Chhetri, officer at Kaski District Administration Office (DAO), the teams also seized and subsequently destroyed substandard products like coconut, lentils, flour and milk. Chhetri also informed that the DAO had barred the stores from selling products until further notice.
Sumit Suppliers was also found selling 24 bags of rotten gram lentil and 20 bangs of maize along with black lentil, 50 packets of powdered milk and coconut among others.
Similarly, Santosh Food Store was found using tampered weighing machine. Market inspection teams also seized 16 bottles of expired Mirinda from the store and destroyed them.
Kapilnath Koirala, chairman of Kaski District Consumers´ Forum, said market inspections before the Dashain festival showed that the prevalence of substandard food commodities is very high in the market.
“We found the market utterly unmanaged. It is high time local authorities conducted market inspections on a regular basis and punished foul players in the market,” added Koirala.
Market inspection teams also found over half a dozen stores in Rambazar selling low quality food products. Sambhukumar Karki, chief of Department of Standard and Meteorology, Pokhara, said market monitoring teams also found some traders hoarding essential commodities to make some fast bucks during the festive season.
A large number of businesses in the lake city are operating without procuring registration certificate from concerned government offices, according to officials at the department. Most of the shops were also found not displaying price list of essential commodities.
While some traders said they sold whatever dealers supplied to them, some accepted that they knowingly procured low quality food commodities as many customers do not bother to see product information before buying products.
Related story
Govt preparing to impose five-year imprisonment for selling sub...
