Based on complaints received from customers shopping for Dasara festival, the Legal Metrology department on Friday conducted raids on 50 textile stores in Hyderabad and filed 200 cases on Friday alone against shop owners to make sure customers are not cheated. The department started their crackdown on October 6, keeping the festival season in mind and has so far booked 472 cases in total against various textile shops in the city.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, assistant controller Bhaskar Reddy stated that many stories had stuck new rate tags over the old ones to falsely show that they were offering discounts.
The Legal Metrology department officials initiated the raids based on complaints from customers through their WhatsApp and consumer helpline numbers. As the festival dates grew closer, the number of complaints increased and on Friday, 15 teams headed by Assistant Controllers conducted raids and inspections across 60 textile outlets. Mehdipatnam, Ameerpet, LB Nagar, Langar Houz, Vanastalipuram, Masabtank Secunderabad and Kukatpally areas.
The raids were conducted at popular textile outlets like Chennai Silks, Ramraj Cotton, Pantaloons, Venkateshwara Khaadi Bhandar, South India Shopping Mall, KLM Fashion Mall Jeedimetla, VRK Silks, Bhavani Brothers, Anutex Cloth Store, Geeta Krishna Shopping Mall, Vandana Textiles, Sri Krishna, Neerus among many others.
The textile shops against whom the cases have been registered were found to have violated various provisions of the Legal Metrology Department Packaged Commodities Act, 2011. Under these provisions, every package should compulsorily have dress size, manufacturer full details, rate, manufacturing date and consumer help desk number printed on it. If any of the above details are not disclosed, it would be a violation of the act.
The department initiated their first raid on October 6 on 35 textile outlets and booked 272 cases against the offenders. Since then the department has booked 472 cases under various raids they undertook.
The consumer can lodge their complaint at the Legal Metrology Department through their WhatsApp number 7330774444 and reach out in their Toll Free Number 180042500333.