As many as 45 jewellery shops in six cities of the State came under raids between November 22 and 25 by the Legal Metrology Department of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department.
As per a department release the raids were conducted on jewellery shops in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Brahmapur Rourkela, Sambalpur and Baleswar.
During the raid, out of the 45 jewellery shops, 29 shops were found violating the weight and measure standards.
The department has collected Rs 3.77 lakh as fine from 27 shops. The department has collected fines from many reputed jewellers of the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar which in big media advertisements claim purity and weight of their jewelleries. Some of them even sold 14-carat gold at 22 carat prices. The matter was discussed in the State Assembly a few days back. During the discussion, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain had intimated about the recent raids on jewellery shops.
But as it was alleged that there were no raids conducted on big jewellery shops, the Assembly Speaker intervened and directed to conduct raids on jewellery shops of Bhubaneswar and Brahmapur.