44 rice mills booked by legal metrology sleuths

GUNTUR: As many as 44 rice mills were booked by the legal metrology sleuths on charges of various violations at Bapatla and Ponnur areas in Guntur district on Saturday.
The legal metrology sleuths conducted raids on rice mills as part of the regular checks and found out the discrepancies.
While many of the rice mills are packing the rice without mentioning name and address of the manufacturer or packer, maximum retail price (MRP), net quantity, date of packing and customer care details.
Out of the total 44 cases, 32 cases have been booked on rice mills for not packing rice without any details on the packages. According to the norms it is mandatory to declare the manufacturer details in case of any packaged commodity.
Two rice mills were found delivering less rice in 25 kg bags. The officials found 2kg short for 25 kg bag at Jayakrishna Rice Mill in Bapatla and 1 kg short at P Nageswara Rao and Lakshmaiah & Co in Ponnur.
In another 10 cases, the weighing machines were not verified in the stipulated time. Every electronic weighing machine has to be verified, stamped and sealed by the legal metrology department once in a year.
The burden of getting stamped from the department lies with the user.
Four teams were formed to conduct simultaneous searches. The controller of legal metrology E Damodhar directed the officials to conduct the raids assistant controller of enforcement K V Raj Kumar supervised the raids. Raj Kumar said that penal action would be initiated against the erring rice mills flouting norms.