‘W&M dept fails to inspect railway station, bus stand’

Raakhi Jagga : Jun 17 2010 : Ludhiana:

The Weights and Measures department of the Punjab government has not been doing its job well. The fact came into light when Vishnu Dev, Director of Anand Security and Detective Services, wanted to know through the Right To Information Act whether weights installed at different bus stands and railway stations are regularly checked or not.

Dev was surprised to know that these weights have not been checked for years. More so, the annual fee from the railways as well as the transport department has also not been collected.

Sources said weights measuring more than 3,000 kilograms are installed at a railway station which are used by the parcel booking department.

Dev said, “These weights are to be checked by the inspector of the weights and measures annually. But RTI revealed that no checking has ever been done at Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar and Ferozepur railway stations.

Hence, the state government is losing revenue worth crores on account of annual fee while the public is harrassed when the weights don’t give the correct measurement. The things are the same at the bus stands as well. He further alleged that, the department fines the shopkeepers for not getting the licenses renewed in time, but no checking is being done at the areas where public dealing is involved.