SURAT, July 5: The district Civil Supplies department, while registering as many as 140 cases in raids conducted on a number of dealers in essential commodities during the past 2 months have seized goods worth Rs 50 lakhs, district collector and magistrate R M Shah said in a statement issued here on Sunday.Cases have been registered against erring dealers and legal proceedings have been initiated against them, the collector further said.
In addition, the district administration while settling 119 pending cases of black-marketing, selling goods without permit and piling up of stocks without licence in the past month, have deposited goods worth Rs 3.38 lakh into the state treasury. An additional Rs 85,000 has been collected in the form of permit deposits, bonds and other fines, the collector stated.
Providing details of the legal proceedings and steps taken against those traders found to be indulging in malpractice, the licences of 15 dealers have been indefinitely or temporarily suspended, those of 9 dealers have been cancelled altogether. The seized items include grains worth 3.17 lakh, pulses worth Rs 1.13 lakh, edible oil worth Rs 23.37 lakh, petroleum products costing Rs 2.93 lakh, vehicles worth 17 lakh, and other goods that include sugar, gas cylinders, cement, gypsum and other goods.
