VIJAYAWADA: Minister for civil supplies and consumer affairs Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao said that 29 cases were booked on fuel bunks and imposed fines ranging from Rs. 70,000 to Rs.3 lakh in each case for a series of violations by the legal metrology authorities in three districts, including Palnadu, Tirupati, and B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema, by carrying out raids on them in the state.
Speaking to media persons here on Wednesday, the minister stated that they would continue to inspect all fuel bunks in the state in the remaining 23 districts in the next six months and warned the fuel bunk traders to book cases on them and produce them before the courts in case they repeat the violation of norms during the sale of fuel.
The minister said that legal metrology authorities carried out an inspection on several shopping malls located in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam and booked 156 cases and vowed to carry out a similar exercise in other cities and towns in the state soon.
He said that efforts were underway to overcome the short supply of manpower in the legal metrology department by getting some officials on deputation so that they could carry out inspections on fuel stations, malls and other establishments to ensure their compliance with norms to safeguard the interests of consumers.
With regard to control on prices of essential commodities and vegetables in the markets and rythu bazaars, they were doing it on CM App and claimed credit that AP was standing in the forefront when compared with other states in the country to keep a check on the rise in prices of essential commodities.
He said that efforts were on to pay Rs. 300 crore to the farmers for the purchase of paddy and added that the Telangana government had agreed to pay Rs. 600 crore to the civil supplies department in AP.
Turning his attention to the AP government’s commitment to develop three capitals, the minister said that their government was not interested in concentrating on only one region as they had learned a bitter lesson by concentrating on development of only Hyderabad earlier. The minister stated that the ongoing Maha Padayatra, taken up by the farmers to extend their support for Amaravati as the capital city, appears to stall development of three regions in the state.
Later, the legal metrology joint controller B. Ram Kumar said that their teams checked certain technical parameters being followed in fuel bunks and booked cases for failing to comply with norms and added that they would complete the inspection of all fuel stations in the state in six months.
