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5,800 thermal scanners recovered in IMT Manesar
Gurugram:
Gurugram:
The district food and drugs control department, along with the police, raided a firm in IMT Manesar on Saturday and recovered 5,800 thermal scanners imported from China. The firm’s owner was allegedly black-marketing the scanners at a higher price, said the police.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the food and drugs control department has launched an operation to check hoarding of thermal scanners, hand sanitisers and masks, which are being black marketed across the district, officials said.
Amandeep Chauhan, drug control officer, said that he formed a team of officials from the department and the police after receiving information on Saturday evening. “We raided the godown and found several cartons of thermal scanners. When we asked the owner to produce the bills, he showed the import documents and other records,” he said.
The owner informed the team that he was selling a thermal scanner for Rs 700 plus goods and services tax (GST). However, his claim of selling the device for Rs 700 each is a matter of investigation, the officials said.
Chauhan said the owner told them that the product is being sold at very high prices in the market. “It was sold in the market between Rs 7,500 and Rs 10,000. It was black marketed and sold to distributors from Manesar area,” he said.
The officials said even the state is facing a shortage of thermal scanners and buying them at a higher cost due to the unavailability with the distributors.
“The recovered thermal scanners have been sent to the state government, which will distribute them to the medical facilities, the police, and others deployed in the duty of Covid-19,” said Chauhan.
The team after the raid informed Gurugram deputy commissioner Amit Khatri about the incident.
Khatri said, “We are regularly conducting raids at godowns across the district and issuing regular warnings to people who are black marketing essential products like masks, sanitisers, and thermal scanners. We have already issued 46 challans against shopkeepers and will take strict action against those taking advantage of this lockdown situation. We want to prevent hoarding and black marketing of the protective gear.”
Muhammad Akil, commissioner of police, said that a team from Sector 40 police station raided the godown on Saturday evening. “The owner agreed to sell all the pieces to the state government as per the directions of the officials. Now, the thermals will be available in the market for merely Rs 862, including all the taxes and transport charges,” he said.
On March 11, the drugs control department had raided a hand sanitizer manufacturing unit in Manesar which was running without a licence. The team had recovered 5,000 bottles of 500 ml and 350 ml with the label mentioning alcohol hand rub.
