Kathmandu, October 7

The government has said that it would give continuity to ongoing monitoring activities in the market even during public holidays in Dashain.

Though public holidays in government offices start from tomorrow, the Department of Supplies and Consumer Welfare Protection (DoSCWP) has said it would deploy inspectors in the market to prevent possible anomalies by traders in food and other services.

“We will mobilise two monitoring teams in the market even during the holidays to control anomalies,” Gokul Dhital, director general of DoSCWP told The Himalayan Times, adding that these teams will be responsible to cross-check black marketing activities and take actions accordingly against traders who are found to be cheating customers by any means.

As per Dhital, such festival-oriented special monitoring of government will run under current Monitoring Head of department Laxman Shrestha. Dhital further said that the government monitoring will be focused on major markets of Kathmandu Valley, including areas from where goats and other livestock are being sold to customers.

For markets outside the Valley, Dhital said inspections will be carried out by District Administration Offices (DAO) in coordination with police.

Consumer rights activists, however, say that though the government is claiming that markets are being monitored every day, it has failed to carry effective and result-oriented inspections.

“In each inspection, government finds traders cheating customers either by charging higher price for products and services or by selling date-expired products. However, the government does not take action against such traders and lets them off with a simple warning,” Madhav Timalsina, president of Consumers’ Right Investigation Forum, said.

“Though government’s attempt to continue monitoring the market in public holidays is a good move, such activities need to be result-oriented,” Timalsina added.