The district office of commerce, supply and consumer rights’ protection in Parsa has raided three shops used for black marketing during the lockdown. A team led by office chief Jit Bahadur Bhandari raided Bharat Enterprises, Siddhartha Vegetable Store and Suresh Medical Shop. They were found creating artificial shortage by hoarding things unnecessarily.

The medical shop was selling gloves without following price rate and cheating customer by showing fake invoice. It was fined Rs 20,000. Similarly, the vegetable shop was found selling potato at exorbitant price. Bharat Enterprises had no documents on price list. They were fined Rs 1,000 each, said information officer Dilip Khadga.

The market places of Nagwa, Panitanki and Murli were also monitored by the team involving Assistant Chief District Officer at Parsa, Lalit Kumar Basnet. Early in the morning, consumers had complained against the retailers for imposing huge price on daily essential goods at local Ghantaghar in light of the lockdown.

Import of gas, petrol unobstructed

Meanwhile, the import of petroleum products and cooking gas continued unobstructed from the Indian border. In recent two days of lockdown, a total of 84 LP gas bullets, 2.8 million kl petrol, and 2.7 million kl diesel were imported from Birgunj check point.

Even the vegetables and food grains are imported, said Bimal Kumar Saha, information officer at Birgunj Customs Office.

Similarly, State-2 traffic police office in Bara shared that on the third day of the lockdown, no vehicles except those permitted operated here.