Second seal delay for consumers - Staff shortage in buyers’ body
Posted by barunroy on May 17, 2008
Siliguri, May 16: “Jago grahak, jago” was the tag-line of an advertising campaign in the print and electronic media in recent times, asking consumers to be aware of their rights and seek redress for the grievances. But the government machinery enabling the consumer to do so is woefully wanting in the Siliguri region.
For one, judgments passed by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum here had been held up for several days for want of the second signature on the order, without which it cannot be handed over to the complainant and the opposing party. A forum, be it at the state or district level, comprises a president and two members, one of whom has to sign the order along with the president.
Secondly, the office of the Consumer Affairs and Fair Business Practices, which works hand in hand with the Forum, has for a long time functioned almost in name only.
One of the member’s posts in the Forum has been vacant since the last incumbent Prasanta Roy left after completion of his five-year term on January 11. The second member, Sumedha Bhattacharya, has not been keeping well, preventing her from attending the Forum regularly, sources at the office on Hill Cart Road said.
“The Forum gets up to 20 cases a month, ranging from complaints against utility services like telephone and electricity, banking and insurance to faulty or deficient products bought by a consumer,” said its president Himadri K. Guha Roy. According to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, each case is to be disposed within 90 days of the opposing party receiving the notice from the Forum.
The state consumer affairs department is aware of the vacancy, an official of the Forum said, adding that Bhattacharya’s term, too, would end soon.
At least three orders were held up with the Forum for over a month till Wednesday, when the second member did attend to sign them. She, however, could not attend the office yesterday. A visit to the Siliguri page on the network of consumer forum website (confonet.nic.in) shows that only two judgements were handed over last month.
The Consumer Protection Act 1986 was formulated and enacted to “provide speedy and simple redress to consumer disputes” through a quasi-judicial machinery (the forums) at the district, state and national level, with stress on time bound delivery of justice to consumers.
On the other hand, the office of the Consumer Affairs and Fair Business Practices came into being in 2001.
“This is the office where consumers first come with their grievances and, if the complaints are valid, are told either to go in for an out-of-court settlement or take up the case with the forum,” said Hitendranath Chakraborty, assistant director in charge of the office. “But we have been badly handicapped for a long time because of the number of vacant consumer welfare officer (CWO) posts.”
Only one CWO had been “serving” the consumers, the remaining 11 posts lying vacant till last month when five were appointed by the department. As a result, no consumer awareness programmes have been held in the 22 panchayats of the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad and the 47 wards of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation ever since the office was set up. [The Telegraph]
