[Resolved]  Govt. Of Assam — Cases pile up in state fora

Address:Kamrup Metropolitan, Assam

Guwahati, Jan. 31: Disposal of nearly 50 per cent of the complaints lodged with various district consumer protection forums across Assam are pending for years, while the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, says the time limit for disposal of a complaint is 90-150 days.

A right to information (RTI) application filed by a local NGO, the Consumers’ Legal Protection Forum, revealed this and showed that only eight districts of the state have permanent consumer protection forums, while another 15 districts have only temporary units functioning with skeletal staff and minimum facilities. There are at present 27 districts in Assam.

The NGO had filed an RTI application with the state food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department in August last year seeking the present status of consumer cases. The replies revealed that nearly 50 per cent of the cases registered with the eight consumer protection forums between July 2007 and July 2010 were yet to be disposed.

“Our application, filed with the chief public information officer of the department, exposed how the issue of consumer rights protection has been neglected in the state, and was limited only to advertisements. The department replied that only eight forums, in Nalbari, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Tezpur, Jorhat, Silchar and Nagaon are permanent, although we have 27 districts. It also said there were 13 temporary forums, but did not provide us with the number of cases pending with them,” secretary of the NGO, Ratul Mahanta, said. The data provided by the department said Silchar recorded the highest number of 199 complaints (88 pending) followed by 142 in Nagaon and 122 in Tezpur (62 pending). The district forum in Jorhat received 62 complaints (42 pending), Nalbari registered 49 cases (23 pending) and Kokrajhar received 16, of which eight were pending. Disposal of the pending cases could take years.

Mahanta said the department did not provide the number of cases registered with the district consumer forums in Guwahati and Dibrugarh, the two biggest commercial centres of the state.

Gauhati High Court lawyer Ajoy Hazarika said according to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the time limit for disposal of a complaint is 90 days, and if product testing is involved, it is 150 days. According to the act, each district should have a permanent consumer forum with a president and two members, he said.

But the RTI application revealed that the president’s post in Tezpur consumer forum was lying vacant since December 2009 and was functioning without the two other members since April 2009. Similarly, the district forum in Silchar did not have a president and the Kokrajhar forum did not have the two members.

“It is unfortunate to see such negligence regarding consumer affairs, and that too, 25 years after the Consumer Protection Act came into effect,” Mahanta said.

(THE TELEGRAPH)
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Aug 13, 2020
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Govt. of Assam — price rise

In a bid to bring respite to the common man who is the worst hit due to price rise of essential commodities, the Consumers' Legal Protection Forum (CLPF) recently submitted a letter to Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Jasti Chelameswar seeking the judiciarys intervention in curbing the skyrocketing prices of commodities.
In the letter Consumers' Legal Protection Forum (CLPF) complaint that failure of the State Government in curbing price rise goes against the Right to Life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. While it is the responsibility of the State Government to take action against businessman and traders engaged in black marketing and illegal hoarding of goods, the Government has failed in doing so The Consumers' Legal Protection Forum (CLPF) has, therefore through its letter, appealed to the Gauhati High Court Chief Justice to intervene in the matter.

Thanx.

Advocate Ajoy Hazarika
Co-ordinator
Consumers' Legal Protection Forum
Mobile :[protected]
Prices of all edible food grains are continuously rising and they are unbridled. In past three four decades I think price never shoot up so much high and so much quickly and speedily in the past, even during Indira’s rule. Prices are increasing brakeless and unabated. It seems more ridiculous when government claims that it is watchful and monitoring properly the trend of price. It gives the message that political leaders do not mean what they say.

Reason behind current price in my opinion is undoubtedly o Neta –Traders and Neta-share broker nexus and it is be beyond the control of the government or the administration. Mr. Sharad Pawar openly says prices will go up. When Ministers issues such irresponsible statement, market overreacts and it is natural. Even opposition parties are silent, almost silent. It shows there are also black sheep in opposition camp. In parliamentary system it is only opposition, which can save people of India from misrule of ruling government. If opposition parties also become silent spectator of rising prices, people are helpless.

Media makes so much hue and cries through TV and print media every now and then. But there is none in the camp of ruling or opposition camp to bother. Ruling government has got a lame excuse and they always talk of global warming or global economic slowdown or bad climate and easily they hide the mistakes of Indian system and also underlying corruption, unethical profit making through hoarding and arbitrary fixing of rates on all commodities. Opposing parties due to their internal problems have also turned deaf ear to painful price rise.

Business house are however very much clever and they keep good relation with all political parties. Obviously leaders of all parties enjoy and it is only common men who suffer the most. Leaders o[censored]PA government blame state governments for current price rise and accuse them for spurt in prices. But they forget that prices are rising even in those states where UPA is in power. When government is not bothered, let the public suffer and revolt against price rise.

Minister of external affairs advised students not to prefer education in Australia because it is not in their control to stop violence going on in Australia against Indians unabated. Now it is also possible that Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India will advise the common men to avoid buying commodities which are not in their reach and remain content with grass and tea leaves.

Danendra Jain
Agartala
9th January 2010

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