The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) has fined 80 businesses a total of Tk 10,39,500 in special drives across 28 districts, including Dhaka, for irregularities such as ripening bananas with harmful chemicals and storing edible oil in unsafe drums. Chemically ripened bananas and about 204 litres of soybean oil kept in drums previously used for urea-formaldehyde were destroyed, citing risks to public health.
Thirty-six teams carried out the drives to keep essential commodity prices stable, ensure normal supply and protect consumers' right to safe food. They inspected wholesale and retail markets, fruit depots, edible oil shops, hotels, restaurants and LPG cylinder outlets.
In Cumilla, a team led by Assistant Director Md Kawsar Mia of the district office fined Halim's Banana Depot Tk 50,000 for ripening unripe bananas with harmful chemicals in the Station Road and Racecourse areas of Adarsha Sadar upazila, and the bananas were destroyed in public. At Karwan Bazar in Dhaka, a team led by Assistant Director Muhammad Hasanuzzaman fined a fruit depot Tk 20,000 for keeping banana-ripening chemicals and warned the trader.
At the loose edible oil markets of Karwan Bazar and Krishi Market, inspectors found oil stored in unhygienic, unsafe drums without required labels. Two shops were fined Tk 2.10 lakh in all: M/s Satata Store Tk 2 lakh, with about 204 litres of soybean oil destroyed in public, and Helal General Store Tk 10,000. That drive was run with other agencies under a Ministry of Industries project.
A separate drive on green coconut sales in the capital covered depots at Sadek Khan Krishi Market and roadside sellers near College Gate, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. Four businesses were fined Tk 57,000 in total for not keeping purchase and sales receipts, having no trade licence and not displaying price lists.
Traders were told not to use harmful chemicals or banned substances in fruit and food, to sell at fair prices with correct weights, to keep receipts and not to hoard. The DNCRP urged consumers not to buy more than they need, to check prices, maximum retail prices, manufacturing and expiry dates and weights before buying, to collect receipts, and to report overcharging, adulteration or fraud to its hotline, 16121. It said the nationwide monitoring would continue.
Photo: Kritzolina / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); bananas at Sadarghat market, representative picture
Source: BSS
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