Imphal, October 01: Fish is delicacy that the Manipuri people have not been able to do without in their daily diet, whether be it Ngari (the fermented fish) for the Sareng Ngaren.

But taking advantage of this weakness of the palate of the people, fish sellers/vendors, especially womenfolk have fooling the buyers with faulty scale and weight measures at the time of selling them.

Although the fishes bought from the markets are weighed right in front of the eyes of the buyers, the fish vendors are always cheating with their various tricks.

After the story carried by this paper on pilfering of cement by the traders and selling them to the public, we are exposing some of the ingenious methods adopted by fish vendors to manipulate the weighing scale and measure to fleece the public, in continuation of the service to spread aware-ness among the people on their rights as consumers.

During a survey conducted by the TSE, it has been found out that most of the fish vendors used two types of scale/balance.

One is used at the time of procuring the fishes from their suppliers and the other at the time of selling them to the people.

The scales have been manipulated in such a way that the suppliers are duped in the first case and the buyers taken for a ride in the second case.

The length on either side of the scale used by the fish vendors are also never the same as they have deliberately shortened one of the sides and the rear parts of the Kg weight have been grinded with the help of Lathe without destroying the original seals.

Over an above this, the fish vendors played tricks with their hands at the time of weighing the fishes.

Talking to The Sangai Express at her office chamber, Controller of Weight and Measures K Kananbala disclosed that her department is also well-aware of the manipulation of weight by the fish vendors and launched drives and seized many faulty scales.

The officials of the Department have to the wrath of the fish vendors in some cases, she recounted.

She further informed that the Department would also start launching drive against pilfering of cement very soon.

While appreciating the concern shown by The Sangai Express, the Controller also cited the example of possible manipulation of weight and measures by the goldsmiths.

Since it is not customary in Manipur to weight the gold in terms of gram, even I also compelled to buy it as one Son, one Chaning, she informed, adding that there is the need for more awareness among the people in this regard.

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