ITAHARI: Black marketeering is rife in Itahari ahead of the Dashain festival. Taking advantange of the consumers who shop lavishly in Dashain out of their year's savings, the shopkeepers are now busy selling essential commodities at inflated prices.

Local residents have started complaining that the black marketing on essential commodities, clothes and jewelry has increased in view of Dashain festival.

What is even more surprising is that even as the local consumers are complaining the irregularities in the market, the consumers' right protection forum, members of chambers of commerce and industries and the local authority, remain simply a mute spectator to the growing malaise in the society.

For the sake of inspecting, the District Administration Office had inspected 11 shops a month ago and found gross irregularities. However, it has taken neither any actions on the culprits, nor taken any measures to control the black marketing.

The businessmen had raised the prices of good recklessly and they are hoarding goods to create artificial crisis of goods, said a local, expressing anonymity.

The local administration is busy in collecting fund for Dashain expenses rather than controlling the black-marketing, another consumer, Jagdish Sapkota, said.

The black-marketing is on rise due to the carelessness on the part of the local administration, Narayan Shrestha, chairman of Consumers' Rigths Protection Forum said, adding, "We are urging the CDO to inspect the market time and again, however, he is not heeding it."