Mysuru/Mysore: “There was a target of registering 800 complaints against traders who were found cheating customers in weight. We have reached the target and a total of Rs. 10 lakh fine has been collected from the erring traders,” said Mahadevaswamy, an Officer from the Legal Metrology Department.

Speaking at a meeting organised by Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP) at its premises in Yadavagiri pertaining to ‘Weights and Measures’ yesterday, Mahadevaswamy said that the Government has given a target of registering complaints against traders cheating customers in ‘weights.’

Citing an example, the Officer said that a customer bought an 8 GB pen drive from a shop in Bengaluru and the shop owner had given wrong information about the quantity of data that could be stored.  A case was registered against the shop owner by the officials of the Bengaluru Legal Metrology Department. 

“This is the first case in this regard registered in the State and discussions were on to conduct such operations in Mysuru too,” Mahadevswamy said and added that such cases are on the rise day-by-day.

Mahadevaswamy also said that 15 days ago, farmers had complained that they were being cheated by middlemen during weighing of produce at Mysuru APMC. A criminal case was registered at the local Police Station against these middlemen. ‘If the farmers have doubts about weights at the APMC, they could recheck the weight at four weighing machines installed at various places in the APMC Yard,” he added.

Stating that traders were cheating customers in various ways to make more profit, the Officer said, “If a trader cheats one customer by 10 grams and if that trader has thousand customers, then the cheating multiplies significantly. In such cases, customers should come forward and register complaint against such erring traders.”

Mahadevaswamy also replied to questions pertaining to fare meter jumping in autorickshaws, cheating at local grocery stores and weight of LPGs among others. MGP Secretary Shivashankar, Members K.V. Ramanath and B. Choudhury, Guruprasad, Hussain and others were present.