Katahara based Bohara Industries and Garima Rice Mills were sealed off after the monitoring team found that the rice sacks readied for dispatch to the market weighed less than the weight printed on the sacks. [break]
According to a source at the office, the mills have been banned from selling the rice sacks for now. The team had checked 188 Surya Jeera Masino brand rice sacks of 25 kg weight and found that each sack was underweight by 140 grams . Similarly, the 50 kg rice sacks at Garima Rice Mills were found underweight by 170 grams.
"We conducted a surprise check after receiving tip off that the rice sacks at the mills were underweight," the source informed. "These mills cannot sell their rice until the case is resolved".
According to the information provided by the monitoring office, the proprietors of the mills had been ordered to present themselves before the office within three days, but they did not show up. A source at the office said they had also in the past received complaint about underweight sacks at Bohara Industries and action had been taken two years ago.
The proprietor of Bohara Industries, Abinash Bohara, who is the president of Morang Merchant Association, admitted that the monitoring team had visited his mills but denied that the rice sacks were underweight. "It was a regular monitoring. We haven´t sent any underweight sacks to the market," he claimed. Bohara´s is one of the biggest rice mills in Biratnagar and dispatches rice to as far as Kathmandu.
Likewise the proprietor of the Garima Rice Mills, Ajit Karuwal, said the monitoring team had found only two sacks of rice underweight and claimed that the mistake was not intentional.
Both mills face action as per Anti-Blackmarketing Act, Metrology Act, as well as Consumer Protection Act.
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