Following complaints of precautionary items like hand sanitisers and masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus being sold at inflated rates, the Commissionerate police swung into action and carried out raids on a number of shops in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack on Sunday.
Several teams of police raided medicine stores in both the cities to check hoarding and black marketing of masks and hand sanitisers.
“The shop owners are looting us. I had come to the medicine store to buy masks and was charged Rs 150 per mask while the MRP was Rs 30. Besides, he refused to give a bill for the purchase. In the meantime, the Badagada police station IIC raided the shop for which I got my money back,” a customer said.
Both masks and hand sanitisers have been brought under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 due to the coronavirus outbreak. This act regulates production, distribution and prices of these items.
The raids were carried out on the instructions of Commissioner of Police Sudhansu Sarangi. Police have warned the medicine shops owners of legal action if they are found ‘looting’ the people, who are scared due to the outbreak of the epidemic.