Bangladesh's consumer rights directorate fined 80 businesses a total of Tk 10,39,500 during simultaneous drives in 28 districts, including Dhaka, on Monday.

Thirty-six teams inspected wholesale and retail markets, fruit depots, edible oil shops, hotels, restaurants and LPG cylinder outlets, the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection said in a statement.

In Cumilla, a team led by Assistant Director Md Kawsar Mia fined Halim's Banana Depot Tk 50,000 for ripening unripe bananas with harmful chemicals at Station Road and Racecourse in Adarsha Sadar upazila. The bananas were destroyed in public.

At Karwan Bazar in Dhaka, a fruit depot was fined Tk 20,000 for storing chemicals used to ripen bananas, and the trader was warned against repeating the offence.

Inspectors also found soybean oil kept in unhygienic drums without labels at the loose oil markets of Karwan Bazar and Krishi Market. M/s Satata Store was fined Tk 2 lakh and about 204 litres of oil held in drums previously used for urea-formaldehyde was destroyed. Helal General Store was fined Tk 10,000.

Separately, four coconut sellers were fined Tk 57,000 in total for failing to keep purchase and sales receipts, not holding trade licences and not displaying price lists. The outlets were at Sadek Khan Krishi Market and near College Gate, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

The teams also checked for overcharging, manipulated weights and measures, expired goods and medicines, and counterfeit products. Traders were told not to use harmful chemicals, to display updated price lists and to keep receipts.

Consumers were urged to check prices, maximum retail prices, expiry dates and weights before buying, and to report irregularities to the directorate's hotline, 16121.