Western Railway station stalls face heat for overpricing

Mumbai: Around seven cases of overcharging, price tampering and smudging were registered against railway stalls by the Legal Metrology Department (LMD) after receiving complaints. 

The weights and measurement department conducted the raids along with the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Mumbai Central, Grant Road, Dadar and Bandra Terminus on Western Railway. The officials found that the stall owners were tampering with labels on packaged drinking water and overcharging it. 

“The cases involve missing mandatory declaration from the products to overcharging on water and cold drinks at food stalls,” said Amitabh Gupta, additional director general of police (LMO).

Out of the seven cases, two are of overcharging, one case is of price tampering, and four cases are of missing mandatory declarations such name or address of manufacturer along with other details of the product. 

The officials said that the stall owners were charging Rs 3 extra on soft drinks and price tags were missing on water bottles, with them charging around Rs 5 more than the actual price.

“There is information that these activities are rampant on many other stations. We would like to expand the action area to other stations too,” added Mr Gupta.

In March, the LMD conducted similar raids at Wankhede stadium following which they sought an explanation from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). 

The cricket bodies were asked about how vendors at Wankhede Stadium were allegedly selling ice cream at inflated rates during Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.

The incident came to light after an LMD team conducted raids on the stalls at the stadium, following directions by food and civil supplies minister Girish Bapat, officials said. Branded ice cream worth Rs 75 was being sold for Rs 100, the officials had found.