Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 30: In a crackdown over booksellers and uniform sellers fleecing the parents of school going children, Legal Metrology Department (LMD) today booked a bookseller for unfair trade practice and smudging the prices of the books.
According to official spokesperson, father of two daughters studying in Shiksha Niketan School at Gandhi Nagar approached M/s Vipin Books Palace at Nai Basti as advised by school to purchase the school books.
The book seller adopted unfair trade practice by way of imposing restriction of purchasing books along with other unwanted stationary which was refused by the complainant as the same was costing Rs 1,654 to him and he was not in the position to afford it unnecessarily, he added.
“Price of the book offered to him was also smudged and the said book seller refused to give bills and even denied sale of the books to him and aggrieved of the situation he filed a written complaint with the department”, the official added.
Acting on the complaint, the said book seller was inspected by Pooja Kumari, Inspector, LM and found that the said book seller was selling the book of Oxford for Rs 207 and the original price was smudged, he said, adding that the dealer could not produce the purchase bills and also not giving the bills.
“All the deceptive books were seized and the book seller was booked under the relevant provisions of the law enforced for the purpose”, he said, adding that the said seller was warned not to insist the parents to purchase unwanted stationary items, sell the books in ethical way and if failed to do so stringent actions will be intensified against him”, he stated.
He further stated that the department has also intensified its drive to check the malpractices in whole of Jammu division and during last week 118 inspections were carried out and 78 cases were registered under different Sections of the Act for selling less to the consumers, overcharging, non declaration of the mandatory declarations on packed commodities and use of unverified weighing instruments for sale of ration, kerosene oil and other Karyana items.
M/s Easy Day at Muthi, M/s Saugaat Departmental Store at Janipur and Appu General Store at Talab Tillo were also booked for violations and cases registered against them, he disclosed.
The department has also recovered an amount of Rs 77,300 as composition money during last week from 62 cases and other cases are being initiated for legal proceedings in the appropriate court of Law, he added.
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