The monitoring authorities are also to blame for being too lenient towards the offenders, because in many cases, they have allowed them to go unpunished

The Department of Supply Management and Consumer Protection has sent out its monitors to see if the shops and other businesses dealing in essential commodities are abiding by the laws and regulations in terms of quality, hygiene, and other parameters.

The department has been showing renewed vigour since August 15. In the process it has gone to pharmaceutical stores, meat houses, grocery shops and gas dealers, among other things, in the Kathmandu Valley.

This monitoring is aimed at ensuring that the ethics of fair trade prevails. It has been regularly monitoring the market since August 15.

For example, it has seized and destroyed date-expired products, products without labels and products not properly stored.

During the checks, the team found several kinds of wrong-doing, such as using plain bills without PAN code to evade taxes, selling non-hygienic food items, even banned drugs, and cheating on prices.

Several offending businesses have been sealed pending further investigation and action.

The current spurt of activity of the department seems to have been fuelled by the instructions of the new Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, to crack down on black marketers and unscrupulous business practices.

The upcoming festival of Dashain has also been cited as another reason for intensifying the monitoring. There is nothing wrong in this. But all people use these commodities round the year.

Therefore, such off-and-on raids on businesses will not be enough to stop the rampant malpractices, as the occasional checks made from time to time in the past have proved, despite the hype that usually surrounds such raids.

The publicity has mainly to do with showing that the department is doing its duty seriously and vigorously.

Clearly, such sporadic efforts have been far from adequate. While the surprise checks get a lot of publicity, the public will not hear much about what further action was taken against the offenders.

Many of them, as the public generally believe, will be let off without action or with just light punishment. The monitoring authorities are also to blame for being too lenient towards the offenders, because in many cases, they have allowed them to go unpunished by just warning them.

Manufacturers and traders are supposed to know what is legal and what is not and what is ethical and what is not. If they violate the law, they should be punished according to the law and the regulations.

The penalties in several cases appear to be too light to deter the wrong-doers from such action in the future.

If so, the department should make out its case for increasing the penalties, or it is a case of inadequate manpower or resources it should make out its case accordingly, and the government should seriously take it up too.

But the officials concerned often try to escape responsibility for their failure to minimize unacceptable trade practices by giving bureaucratic excuses.

The representative bodies of business and industry have meanwhile urged the government “not to terrify” businesspeople “in the name of market monitoring. Here things are simple. Innocent traders and manufacturers need not fear such action.

And those guilty should not be spared. This should apply to monitoring officials as well.

Erring schools

After the Department of Education issued a directive to the Lalitpur District Education Office to scrap private schools which have not been in operation for the last three years action has been taken against 13 erring schools.

These schools have remained inactive for a number of years and DEO had given an ultimatum of 35 days to the schools to provide the necessary documents to prove that the schools are running.

Moreover, some schools have applied to have their name changed and also their location. There is something fishy about this.

The DEO for its part has been seeking proof that they have the permission to run schools. The schools also need to furnish evidence that the schools’ students have participated in the SLC exams for the past three years.

Lower secondary schools have to provide proof that the schools have been participating in the district level exams. The schools should have a School Management Committee, among other requirements.

Those who want to run private schools should not be discouraged provided they fulfil all requirements. But those who not should not be allowed to continue, either.