VIJAYAWADA:Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) sleuths, accompanied by the officers from Legal Metrology and Agriculture Market Committee departments, raided shops at Rythu Bazaar in Swaraj Maidan and booked a slew of cases against errant vendors involved in tampering with weights and measurements on Wednesday.
Acting on a tipoff, six teams led by Vigilance SP M Ravindranath conducted surprise checks at Rythu Bazar and booked cases against the vendors for selling good quality vegetables to hotels and wholesalers, leaving only low-grade stocks for the public thronging the market.
The Legal Metrology officials seized 12 weighing machines: five of them did not have seals and the others displayed wrong measurements. The sleuths also caught hold of nine vehicles that were carrying nearly six tons of vegetables. ‘’Despite the norms, which says that vegetables more than 5kg should not be sold to individual buyers, vendors sell more produces to the retailers to earn quick bucks,”Vigilance DSP said.
During the inspection, it was also found out that 30 shop owners had illicitly got hold of their vendor’s licence. Cases were booked against them and post verification, their licence would be cancelled, the official said. He said that a vendor’s licence was given to DWCRA members, SHG members and farmers.