DNA, January 12, 2015
The regional consultation was held under the Consumers Up Project being implemented by CUTS in partnership with Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt. of India The objective of the Consultation Meeting was to disseminate the findings of a field survey based research and to take feedback from all concerned stakeholders related to consumer protection in North-India region. The project involves field research to assess the extent of realisation of consumer rights and to bring out ‘State of the Indian Consumer Report 2012’. In the state of Haryana the project is being implemented in collaboration with Citizen Awareness Group (CAG), Chandigarh. Surinder Verma
Chairman, CAG made the welcome remarks.
Mr. George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS highlighted about the project background and relevance. He said though there is progress about consumer awareness and protection on many fronts, yet the situation is alarming as only 20% know about Consumer Protection Act, enacted to provide easy and speedy redressal to consumers in 1986. He further told that consumers complaints are not being redressed on time and 78% consumers are not satisfied with the present redressal mechanism.
Project Coordinator, Amarjeet Singh made a presentation highlighting key findings of the research. He shared that in the study it was found that 31% consumer feel water supplied to them is not safe for drinking, 20% of consumers have to obtain LPG & Karosin mostly from black market, 74% feel a need of regulator for private schools, only 5% have access to internet, 53% demand to enact a law to ensure right to basic needs, lack of awareness about consumer protection related laws and regulatory authorities, lack of consumer participation in consultation process were the main finding of the study. He During the open discussion, mainly Mrs. Madhu P. Singh, President Consumer Forum, Faridkot, Anant Sharma, Charanjeet Singh, Vijay Acharya, Lukhnow provided their feedback and suggestions on the research findings.
The consultation was attended by about 100 participants comprising of consumer originations, regulatory authorities, policy maker, and media from Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab who provided their inputs on the study findings. The inputs will be incorporated in the State of the Indian Consumer Report to be brought out as the main output of the project. Arjun Kant Jha Project Officer, CUTS International gave vote of thanks o all participants
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