The price cap recently fixed by the State government for essential consumables like face mask, sanitisers, PPE kits, and pulse oximeter is yet to be followed by many wholesale and retailers in Kozhikode district.
Though there is a noticeable rise in the number of confidential complaints from individuals, many are still buying it from traders without even seeking their explanation on the latest government instructions.
The propagation of some of the wholesale distributors in the medical field that only cheap quality products will be available at the price fixed by the government have also silenced a number of isolated protests. Branded products with fixed price are still leading the show by cashing in on the customers’ hesitation to purchase fair-priced items projected as “low quality”.
Attempts to sell off poor quality products at higher prices by tampering with the original price tag have also come to the notice of various checking squads during their flash inspections. The usual trickery is to cover the original price tag with other labels to mislead the customers. Names of manufacturers have also been found missing in some of the products commonly used for monitoring the health of COVID-19 patients.
“Like the traders, most of the hospitals in the city are also encouraging overpriced masks, PPE kits, and other consumables for COVID-19 care. They evade the government directive with a claim that these products are used for better safety,” says N. Azeez, an ambulance driver offering service to COVID-19 patients in Kozhikode city. He also claims that there are patients and bystanders who purchase only the overpriced products with their false security feeling.
Meanwhile, officials with the Legal Metrology Department point out that their squads are on the field tracking all the shops engaged in the unfair trade. They say the taluk-level squads in Kozhikode district have already exposed 13 such traders after checking over 100 suspected shops.
They also confirm that incidents of tampering the original price tag and sales without revealing the manufacturer’s details have been exposed during the inspection. It was mainly noticed in the case of pulse oximeters. In the wake of the latest findings, they have urged the public to promote and make use of the ‘Sutharyam’ mobile applications or any other public helplines to report suspected incidents for spot legal action.
