HYDERABAD: The number of cases registered by the legal metrology department has significantly decreased after the pandemic. Despite citizens’ concerns over the increase in prices of essential commodities during the Covid-19 induced lockdown, only 33% of the total 99,789 cases registered after the formation of Telangana were registered after 2019.
The number of cases registered in previous fiscal years is as follows: 10,216 (2014-15), 17,978 (2015-16), 13,009 (2016-17), 12,996 (2018-19), and 12,565. In more recent years, the department registered 10,153 (2019-20), 6,884 (2020-21), 9,702 (2021-22), and 6,286 cases (till December 2022). Between 2014 and 2022, the department collected a fee of `52.26 lakh.
The legal metrology department is authorised under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, to impose penalties for compounding offences such as using non-standard weight or measure, manufacturing or selling non-standard weight or measure, making any transaction in contravention of prescribed standards and various other offences.
During the lockdown period, private vendors were found to be charging prices higher than the MRP and creating artificial scarcity of certain essential commodities. The Legal Metrology department took action against these violations and booked cases accordingly.