Save the Consumer

Vikram Gour
The ever spiraling prices of all the commodities including necessities of daily life such as milk and milk products, vegetables, fruits, all that one needs in the kitchen for daily two meals, clothing, and other required items of house-hold use including medicines and medical services, have confused the consumers. Add to this tremendously increased transportation charges of busses, matadors, autos, taxis, load carriers etc that were fixed when the prices of petrol/diesel were at their highest. Further add to this the indifference of the consumer protection agencies of the Government and their refusal to enforce the existing laws to hold the price in favor of the consumers has further added to the confusion. How to manage one’s monthly budget within the available resources has become a problem for the common man.
True, our state is a ‘consumer state’ and there is nothing much we produce in the state. Most of the items of use are imported from outside the state and we cannot do much to control the prices. These prices will be regulated by the prices at the national level. But we can certainly control the prices of items that are locally produced and/or a mechanism can be evolved to control the prices to reasonable level once the items of use are imported and see to it that the prices are uniform within a certain area of use. For instance, prices of fruit, vegetables, milk and milk products etc are different at different areas of the city. Another item of daily use is the bread that is the first thing you eat in the morning. Although this item is one of the essential items of which the CAPD is supposed to fix the rate periodically yet CAPD has not revised its price/weight for years now. The manufacturers and retailers are selling bread of various weights and sizes at prices that have no relation with the official price and weight.
This job of maintaining and regulating the price-line and quality of commodities sold in the market has been entrusted to the Directorate of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD), Deputy Commissioners, Legal Metrology, Drug Controller and of the Municipal Corporation etc. While the price control and the quality of the goods/services supplied effect 100 percent population of the state the Public Distribution concerns only a part of the population of the entire state yet the total thrust and attention of the CAPD is on public distribution and no attention is being given to the Consumer Affairs. The CAPD seems to be ever busy with arrangement, procurement, supply and distribution of the food grains to the different part of the state through the government controlled outlets. How much of it reaches the genuine ration-card-holder and how much to the non ration-card-holders and at what price may not be of much concern to the department. Similarly other departments entrusted with protection of the Consumers Rights under the Consumer Laws have abandoned their responsibility to act and protect the hapless consumers.
Today the ‘Consumer Affairs’ after the passage of the Consumer Protection Act of 1987 has acquired so much importance that it requires an exclusive and independent Directorate of Consumer Affairs to manage the consumer affairs and coordinate the activities of all other agencies that deal with the consumer problems that have multiplied with increase of consumable items of daily use in life of each citizen of the society. No government worth its name that swears by the welfare of its citizens can afford to neglect the strict enforcement of the Consumer Protection Laws in favor of the consumers.
Although the prices, quality and quantity of these items and services are supposed to be fixed and regulated by these agencies yet they have not been able to enforce the prices/service charges fixed by them nor have they been able to regulate the quality of these items e.g. Milk/Milk-products price and quality although fixed by the CAPD more than 6-months back and circulated among the sellers yet every seller/vendor of these products charges price of his own choice and supplies quality that suits him. The enforcement agencies of the Government just look the other way when it comes to enforcing the officially fixed price and quality.
Fruits and vegetables, items of daily use and necessity are being sold by the shopkeepers and vendors at the prices of their own choosing depending upon the area they are having their out-lets. The prices are not openly displayed and are not at all related to the whole sale price in the Mandis. All efforts of the Consumer Organizations to get prices openly displayed have failed. The enforcement agencies just play the drama of fining some of the vendors once in a blue moon and then sleep over with their vested interest in tact. On top of all this the ‘Consumer Courts’ where the consumer can complain against the unscrupulous traders and/or services providers are non-existent.
The consumer organizations seek the intervention of  the State Governor to intervene and impress upon all the concerned Government agencies to perform their duties to protect the interest of the consumers.
(The author is President, Consumer Welfare Association)

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