State initiates measures to safeguard farmers from ‘rigged’ weighbridges

Mumbai : In a first of its kind effort, the state’s Legal Metrology Department has issued a circular making it mandatory for all new weighbridges to be checked thoroughly and certified before being used. The officials said the circular will be applicable for all units that will be calibrated after November 15.

The officials said the step has been taken with an aim to protect the loss of the farmers in a state while selling their crops to industrial or trade units where the weighbridge are faulty or rigged.

The controller of the LMO said taking this step was important as earlier there was a petrol pump scam in which hundreds of pumps were found to be dispensing less fuel than displayed on the machine through an illegal installation of electronic chips. “Such unfair practices by weighbridges operators cannot be ruled out,” said Amitabh Gupta, IPS.

The circular, was issued on November 8, stated that the weighbridge operators has to make several declarations in the form including the version of software used in the machine and whether there is js provision for auxiliary fitting or computer interface in the setup.

“The operators have to submit a detailed report to the LMO department before the machine is been calibrated,” added official.

According to the officials currently, 8,300 weighbridges are in operation and every year 25-30 weighbridges are used across the state. “The circular will be issued next week to bring the operated weighbridges under similar declaration and audit regime,” said official.

Under the current practice, after a weighbridge is installed, its calibration is checked by using authorised weights. The operator will issue a certificate after the verification process. Again, during the annual audit, the weights are used to check the machine’s calibration. “Unless every component of digital weighbridges is thoroughly checked, it will be difficult to ascertain if it has been rigged,” added Gupta.

A senior official said weighbridges at the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) markets, sugar cane markets and cotton gins would be brought under the ambit of the circular. “These are the places where the bulk of farmers’ produce in the state is weighed and sold. It is extremely important to rule out manipulation of weighbridges as it has a direct bearing on the rural economy,” Gupta said.

Many of these weighbridges have got licences decades ago, and have switched to digital systems which has been made without any authority and authenticating the components used in them. “Considering that every day thousands of trucks carrying farm products are weighed at these places, a few kilograms of manipulation in each truck would mean a colossal gain to the traders and middlemen, at the peril of the farmers,” Gupta said.