Robbers loot policeman’s house in Ausgram
Armed robbers raided the house of a policeman in Ausgram in the small hours today and looted gold jewellery, cash, electronic goods and thrashed the family members.
The government is going to make hallmarking for gold jewellery and artifacts mandatory from January 15, 2021, to ensure quality of the metal said, Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Friday.
A notification in this regard will be issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs on January 15, 2020 and the decision will come into effect from after a year.
Addressing the media, Paswan said that hallmarking of gold jewellery and artifacts is being made mandatory in India to ensure that new assaying and hallmarking centres will be set up by private entrepreneurs at locations where demand for gold jewellery and artifacts arises.
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Paswan further said that hallmarking will benefit the poor people in villages and small towns who are not able to make out the purity of gold they have been buying.
The Bureau of Indian Standards Act 2016 has enabling provisions under Section 14 and Section 16 for making hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts mandatory by the Central government. This will make it compulsory for all the jewellers selling gold jewellery and artefacts to register with the BIS and sell only hallmarked gold jewellery and artefacts, an official statement said.
The BIS Act 2016 has been implemented with effect from October 12, 2017 and BIS Hallmarking Regulations 2018 notified with effect from June 14, 2018. BIS has been running a hallmarking scheme for gold jewellery since April 2000. As on October 31, 2019, there were 877 assaying and hallmarking centres spread in 234 district locations across the country and so far 26,019 jewellers have taken BIS registration, as per the statement.
The World Gold Council (WGC) welcomed the move and said that it would benefit both the consumers and traders alike.
(With input from agencies)
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