BHUBANESWAR: Taking advantage of shortage of field staff in carrying out enforcement activities, unscrupulous gas filling stations and cooking gas distributors are cheating consumers by manipulating the weights and measures, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Krushna Chandra Patra said on Tuesday.
Addressing the state-level function on National Consumers’ Day here, Patra said, as many as 371 petrol pumps in the state have been found to be cheating consumers by tampering with the system in dispensing units and delivering less fuel.
“On an average, consumers are getting 20 gm to 30 gm less fuel on purchase of five litre of petrol or diesel. Action has been initiated against these fuel stations,” he said.
The minister further said similar practice has been noticed with cooking gas distributors. “The distributors are cheating consumers by manipulating weight of 14 kg and 19 kg gas cylinders,” he said.
Describing this as a legacy issue of the previous BJD government, the minister said BJP has inherited a rotten system which was mostly dysfunctional in the last 24 years.
“Wherever I go, I receive the same complaint of staff shortage. Enforcement activities have come to a standstill due to acute scarcity of manpower, office vehicles and other infrastructure support. Lack of inspection has emboldened traders to resort to unethical practices to exploit consumers,” he added.
The minister said he had discussed these issues with Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and the latter has given his approval for filling up the vacant posts.