The Department said its special taskforce headed by an officer in the rank of an Assistant Commissioner was formed following complaints and it raided cinemas across the state during the last two days, an official press release said.

“Inspection was carried out in a total of 335 places in Tamil Nadu and 72 contraventions were found in selling water bottles, soft drinks and food packets above MRP. There were also violations reported in non-declaration of statutory information like the name of the manufactures, their complete address, MRP (inclusive of all taxes), date of packing, best before use and so on,” said R Nantha Gopal, Commissioner of Labour department, in an official release, on Friday.

He also said that 38 cases were booked for non-declaration of statutory information and another four cases were booked for contraventions in weights and measures. “Of late, a lot of complaints had been received from the public about packaged commodities sold above MRP in canteens, restaurants and stalls inside cinema theatres and in order to put an end to the practice, the special task force was formed in each district and surprise raids were conducted on Thursday and Friday in all cinema theatres across the state,” Gopal added.