“This is a very worrying trend. How can we force the companies to correct their operations if political parties´ sister organizations back them up?” questioned an official at the Department of Commerce (DoC). [break]
On Monday, a team of CPN-UML affiliated Youth Association Nepal (YAN) had inspected Everest Gas and declared its operations ´fair´. It had even said that their team, which carried out sudden inspections of the company, did not find anything wrong in the weight and standard of the cylinders.
Contrary to this, sudden inspection of the company a few weeks ago by the concerned inspectors had found the company of widely circulating welded cylinders, something which exposes consumers´ life to grave risk, supplying less fuel that stipulated 14.2 kg and not cleaning the cylinders regularly.
Based on the finding, DoC had suspended its business for a week and sought explanation in writing from its promoters.
“We are still investigating the case and have instructed the company to furnish additional details as its explanations did not satisfy us,” the source said, adding, “In such a context, declaring the company as operating fairly could confuse consumers.”
Carrying out similar inspection, Gas Dealers´ Federation had declared that five companies manufacturing cooking gas regulators in the Kathmandu Valley were not fulfilling the standard norms.
However, the Bureau of Standard and Metrology could not pick up the case because the inspection was carried out without representation of concerned experts and officials.
The existing law of the country allows only the authorized officials of DoC, Commerce Office, Bureau of Standard and Metrology, District Administration Office and designated market inspectors to inspect the market. The law neither validates independent inspection, nor recognizes their findings.
In such a situation, officials said they face legal complications when sensitive groups like organizations backed by political parties report foul play in the market and demand action based on their inspections.
“Still worrying is, their act of giving clean cheat to wrongdoing companies could mislead consumers, resulting to grave consequences,” said the official anonymity.
Meanwhile, YAN has said that its attempt to monitor the market in the absence of concerned inspectors was a mistake.
“We have realized the mistake. We will not carry out further inspections without the involvement of concerned officials,” said Jhapat Rawal, vice president of YAN.
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