Lawmakers get market monitoring mandate

KATHMANDU, NOV 21: 

Finance and Labour Relation Committee of Legislative Parliament has mandated Labour, Transport, Industry, Commerce and Supply Sub-Committee to monitor the market.

The sub-committee can monitor market across the country as and when needed, the committee decided today. However, the sub-committee has to provide its plan of action to the committee before planning for monitoring. “Lawmakers can now monitor the markets,” member of the committee Shrawan Kumar Agrawal, said, adding that sub-committee can inspect any market or business but has to inform to the committee earlier.

Lawmakers of the committee had monitored market in August following the report of massive adulteration in milk, bottled water and edible oil. The committee had inspected dairy industries but could not find proofs of adulteration. 

Therefore, the sub-committee had stopped monitoring from September. However, market monitoring authorities – Department of Commerce, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control and Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology – had found various irregularities in the market.

Market monitoring team of Department of Commerce has found massive adulteration in Gudpak – a popular sweet – and other sweet shops. Department of Food Technology and Quality Control found sub-standard bottled water in the market. “We closed four drinking water bottling industries since August,” said spokesperson of the department Pramod Koirala.

Likewise, Department of Commerce is designating market monitoring rights to municipalities and village development committee (VDCs) to expand its base. “Municipalities and VDCs must support the drive, so we are motivating them to start market monitoring,” said director general of the department Anil Kumar Thakur.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City has started registration of meat shops in the metropolitan area. “All the meat shops will be registered within a months,” said chief of Public Health Department of the metropolis Dr Babu Ram Gautam.