Vigilance raids continue on hoarders of edible oils

Vijayawada : Vigilance and enforcement officials carried out raids on traders and wholesale shops across the state for unauthorised hoarding of stocks and seized edible oil, groundnut seeds and groundnut cake.

The officials have registered 70 cases under the Legal Metrology Act, 16 cases under Food Safety Act and one case under Essential Commodities Act against the traders and stockists. Director general of vigilance and enforcement Harish Kumar Gupta in a press release on Wednesday said that 43 teams conducted raids on 92 premises and seized 14,293 litre edible oils, 89,250 kg groundnut seeds and 298 bags of groundnut cake worth Rs1.75 crore and levied penalty of Rs 5.14 lakh for unauthorised storage.

Keeping in view the coming festival season, there is a possibility of unauthorised storage of edible oils and other commodities by the traders and creation of artificial scarcity in the market that will lead to rise in prices. The sudden hike of prices of edible oil and other commodities may cause burden to the consumers in the festival season.

Harish Kumar Gupta warned traders not to indulge in such activity which is causing hardships to the common people in the state and also stated that the surprise raids will continue further.