Since the time as I can remember I have always known railway station vendors charging extra for a water bottle, if not all them then most of them! Do you feel this has happened with you too? Then call 22253500 if you are in Bangalore or in Mumbai – 22023354/ Chennai – 24321438,/Hyderabad – 27612170/ Delhi – 23379266. These are not the new numbers which government has introduced, they have been in service for quite sometime now, only issue is that Indian Government never takes the initiatives to popularize these ‘much appreciated’ initiatives.
The issue does not stop at a Railway Station, its everywhere – your local kirana shop, airports or any other place where you can see the MRP on the bottle but still the vendor/shopkeeper charges extra – in the name of ‘cooling’. This practice has been so prevalent in our lives that we no longer bother to ask questions on why is he charging/is he legally allowed to charge extra/we care less to fight with him for the Rs.2 extra he asked for! Mind you, unless it says especially packaged drinking water for airport/shop etc you can report this malpractice to the government. Unless you are in a restaurant where the bottle is carried to your table or even sometimes presented to you in their glasses and hence it becomes a service for which the establishment is allowed to charge extra.
Test it out in your colony today or if you already know that a particular shopkeeper always charges more in the name of same ‘cooling’ then try getting a receipt for the same, even if you can’t get one its ok. Simply call up the numbers mentioned above. A person from government department will come posing as a customer and if found overcharging (which he obviously will) the shopkeeper will be charged with a fine of Rs. 5000. Between charging Rs.2 extra and getting Rs. 5000 slapped on him, am sure he can make a rational choice 🙂
By the way, next time you are in a airport and plan to buy a bottle of water from the coffee shop, please ensure if they are overcharging (which is a 100% guarantee that they will do) the packaging for the bottle should clearly state the same – either a new MPR printed on it or ‘specially packaged for Airport’ or something like that should be mentioned by the manufacturer itself. They cannot sell the same bottle water that at a higher price just because its sold in an airport. For all such cases the bottle has to be location specific.
Unfair trade practice and we never bothered to care because India main ‘sab chalta hai’ !?
well, I say – THINK AGAIN.