Unabated malpractices
The Himalayan Times
11
March 2013
The team of Metropolitan Traffic Police
Division (MTPD) and Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) deserve
appreciation for launching crackdown on cabbies who were fleecing passengers.
Many passengers were forced to pay almost double amount using the taxis with
malfunctioning meter. Most of the taxis in the town are found plying either
using malfunctioning meters or without meters. These malpractices were in place
for a long time.
Using taxis these days are not affordable
to common people. However, people will be compelled to use them (taxis) during
emergency services and are forced to pay exorbitant charges. There will be no
place to lodge complain about such malpractices. Even, I have never bothered to
complain to nearby traffic police about such incidents knowing that I was
cheated by the taxi drivers. Unless the people like me who is considered to be
literate and conscious citizen make an effort of chasing away of these kinds of
malpractices in coordination with the concerned authorities, we will continue
to be cheated in the coming days.
This kind of cheatings to the consumers is
found in every corner of the town. Prices and quality of daily consumer goods
are found different from one retailer shop to another. Private hospitals raise
their consultation fees in their own ways. Likewise, doctors in their clinics
charge their consultation fees haphazardly; NOC raises prices of petroleum
products without using any scientifically proven pricing method and so on.
Unless the consumers make themselves aware of these malpractices in and outside
the government system and prepare to productively oppose, they will continue to
be cheated.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj, Kathmandu
