Cycle industry furious over 'spurious parts' from China

LUDHIANA: Bicycle industrialists are furious over the problem of increasing sale of duplicate bicycle parts in the country.
According to businessmen, the problem is eating up a huge share of their profits and lax laws are the reason why these cases are increasing.
According to people associated with the industry, most of these cheap products are imported from China, and some are also manufactured in Ludhiana itself.
Businessmen are also of the view that the government departments should start taking exemplary action in such cases so that the problem is dealt with severely.
According to Charanjit Singh Vishivkarma, leading manufacturer of bicycle parts, "The problem of huge influx of duplicate bicycle parts of leading companies and brands in the markets is choking our industry. The rates of these duplicate parts are 20 to 25 percent cheaper than the rates of the actual manufacturers of these parts. This problem is prevalent from quite some time now, but over the period of last one year there has been huge spurt in such cases. The situation is such now that the estimated volume of the trading of the duplicate parts has eaten up more than 30 percent of our sales."
Vishivkarma also added, "We are ourselves bearing the brunt of this malpractice as almost twice or thrice in a month we come across the case of duplicate parts of our brand name "Dass" being sold in markets of Uttar Pradesh. We feel helpless to counter this problem because the process of getting police action done against the culprits is very cumbersome and slow."
Explaining about the modus operandi of the businessmen indulging into such tactics, Inderjit Singh Navyug, ex-president of United Cycle and Parts Manufacturers Association said, "The people who are indulging into this malpractice buy very low quality parts from Ludhiana or even import these from China. After this they arrange exactly same packing with brand name, registered name of the genuine manufacturers from cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Lucknow etc and pack the spurious parts into them. The end customers easily get taken for a ride because they hardly are able to distinguish between the genuine and spurious parts because of the same packing and brand name."
According to Kulpreet Singh, another prominent bicycle parts manufacturer, of Ludhiana, "The problem of increasing sale of duplicate bicycle parts can only be countered if the government departments, law enforcement agencies deal with this offence seriously. Rather than waiting for the manufacturer or rightful owner to come forward and complain about the violations, the agencies should themselves conduct random checkings and take strict action against the people behind such wrongdoings."