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Let us realise our dream to become
a developed nation by 2047.
- B.Vaidyanathan
Even the most passionate
and sincere vision to make India, a developed nation by 2047 will only remain
on paper, if the people behind the government and its agencies fail to measure
up to the expectations and the demands of delivering results. Obviously, laws and devising systems alone cannot make
a country great, unless those are translated to tangible results expected
of them. It needs to be borne in mind that only a miniscule
minority of the population, who are aware of the laws and their rights and
are also resilient enough to take up the issue with the authorities concerned,
of the government. Any failure or lackadaisical approach on the
part of such machinery needs to be viewed seriously and appropriate action
taken. Only then, the ordinary citizen, the consumer will be able
to experience a responsive government, which is the hallmark of a welfare
State, a developed India.
Now, let me come to the real story. On 20th Dec.
2024, I had ordered some grocery items through M/s
amazon.in, an organisation claiming
itself as “Most Customer Centric Organisation on
the earth”. The same evening when the items were delivered,
it was found that one of the items, KLF Tilnad Sesame Oil, 200 ml PET with
a MRP of Rs. 88/-, had been billed at Rs. 99/- each. Thus with 7 nos.
supplied, the item had been billed at Rs. 693/- (99 x 7), instead of Rs.
616/- (88 x 7), in excess of Rs. 77/-. The matter was immediately reported
through chat and telephonic calls to several in the hierarchy, of Amazon, ending with one Mr. Guru
Sevak Singh, introduced as Specialist in that area (pricing or whatever).
He sought 3 days’ time and assured me that someone would call by 24th Dec.
’24. But no one called. As per my Standard Operating Procedure,
I took the next step of escalating the matter to the concerned authorities.
In Tamil Nadu where I reside presently, after searching
the web, to my pleasant surprise, found a web page “Complaint tracking system of Legal Metrology”,
where an individual could lodge a complaint regarding Weights & Measure issues. All the
pleasantness experienced by me vanished within a few minutes, as there was
no way to lodge a complaint as the OTP verification system, which is an integral
part of this complaint lodging system, to verify the identity of the individual
lodging the complaint, was dysfunctional. After exhausting this option,
after continuously trying for a week, at different times of the day, gathered
the relevant e-mail ids of the concerned officials, lodged the complaint
along with the copy of the Tax Invoice and photo of the PET bottle, on 31st
Dec. 24. The addressees include the highest in the hierarchy, ie.,
Principal Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu,
Co-operation, Food and Consumer Protection Department.
Since there was no response from any quarter, even
after a reminder sent on the 20th Jan. 2025, forwarded the complaint to the
Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government
of India, on 2nd Feb. Till date the response has been conspicuous
by its absence.
All these mundane details have been shared herein
only to highlight the effectiveness with which our bureaucracy, the people
behind the government at the State and Central levels, have been so lethally
silent even on actionable complaints. Herein, proper Invoice
supporting the transaction, photo of the item clearly indicating the MRP,
and last but not the least, the dysfunctional Legal
Metrology Portal (Complaint tracking system) of the Government of Tamil Nadu had all been systematically
brought to light. In spite of all this, the violation of a very important
and simple Packaged Commodities Rules,
which affects each and every citizen of this country, is being taken lightly,
highlighting the indifference of people who are supposed to deliver.
Government
can introduce all the latest technologies, harp on innovation and digitization,
invest and encourage AI and so on, but unless the delivery is ensured in
totality, by all means, I am afraid the dream to achieve a developed nation
by 2047 could become all the more daunting.
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KIND
ATTENTION PLEASE!!
For the benefit of readers, we have provided
below the links for our monthly newsletter
Advantage Consumer, which can be utilised
Free of Cost.
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Consumers will
be better protected - Narendra Modi
Let the consumer
be doomed
Employees are
entitled to benefit of two years weightage under the
EPS
Don't Disturb
- Justice is not Supreme
Supreme Court
fails
to uphold the law
Some
suggestions to Chief Justice of India -
Is it
that the Laws & Rules need
to remain only on paper?
Unprincipled
Amendments to Consumer Protection
Act
A big question
mark about the relevance
of the judiciary in safeguarding the
consumer
(Council's
Curative Petition dismissed)
In India, consumers have
been at the receiving end
since long. One thought that things
will change for the better
after the Consumer Protection Act was
enacted in 1986 and a structured approach
was adopted to promote and safeguard the
interests of the consumers.
But after 2004, things have gone from bad to worse.
Commencing from the castration of the Central
Consumer Protection Council, the relevance
of the consumer Act itself has been brought
into question. If the government
is found wanting and none too serious to strengthen
this voluntary initiative of the individuals
to do their bit for a healthy society, which
in any case is bound to benefit the industry, its competitiveness
and the country as a whole, myopic approach
only appear to rule the roost, as on date.
Important amendments which
were brought in 2003 to the Consumer
Protection Act, with a clear objective
of penalising Unfair Trade
Practices and to compensate the consumer/litigant
adequately have been frustrated
by the indifferent approach of the National
Commission as well as the Supreme Court.
That is why, giving the benefit of doubt to
the bench which did not do justice to the
issues placed before it by Consumer Protection Council,
Rourkela, and to take the issues pursued by
it to the logical end, Curative Petition was filed.
The GROUNDS
categorically illustrate the
denial of Natural Justice
to the Petitioner Council and the failure
of the Court in addressing the issues
raised in the Appeal.
Rupa Ashok Hurra
case specifically has laid Violation
of Principles of Natural justice as the
valid ground for considering a Curative
Petition. Question is whether a narrow
view of non-issue of notice alone should
be taken as the requisite ground for allowing
the Appeal or blatant denial to consider the
Grounds of Appeal by the concerned bench should
be treated alike, in the larger interests of justice?
If this anomaly is not addressed,
Curative Petitions will only be found
useful when the media start highlighting an
issue, like the LGBT case leading to the strength of
the population deciding the outcome of the Curative
Petition. This does not augur well
for a civilized democratic country.
Learned ex-Justice of
Gujarat & Rajasthan High
Courts, Sri M.R.Calla, and designated
Sr. Advocate of the Supreme Court had
unequivocally advocated for allowing the Curative
Petition of the Council, pointing
out the gross miscarriage of
justice and denial of natural justice.
But that has not appealed
to the Supreme Court bench headed by
the CJI, who have
dismissed
the Curative Petition, as
per the Order made available on
the internet today.
Something
needs to be done to address and to
save the people from this hyper-technical
approach of the Supreme Court and
to promote the consumer movement, which
is after all in the best interests of
the nation. Will Shri Narendra Modi
and his government do something to stem this rot?
**************
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How can the Supreme
Court pass an irrelevant order?
'Consumer justice
is your right'
Fleece the consumer
and go scot-free
Finish the consumer
movement?
www.moneylife.in/finish-the-consumer-movement
A consumer organisation
with a difference.
Instead of rendering advisory
services alone, the Council since
its inception, in 1985, has been
taking up issues affecting them through the
consumer courts and other means and
feels proud to have provided relief to crores
of people. These include:
-
Remedial action against
short filling of LPG in
cooking gas refills; of the 184 LPG
Bottling Plants, of the three Oil Marketing
Companies (IOC, BP & HP), only 4 remain
to be automated. Even these will
be modernised within the next financial year
2013-14). The quantified loss
of nearly Rs. 750 crores per year to the consumers
across the country has been taken care
by this upgradation. Thanks to the
Council's Original Petition initiatied in
2001, before the National Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission (NCDRC).
-
Won an important case against
the Rourkela Development Authority
and secured financial relief for a group of
individuals, against violation of Plan
& Specifications in the construction
of the houses and delay in handing
over the possession.
-
Obtained a separate District
Forum for Rourkela, though
it is not the district headquarters,
which otherwise necessitated
the entire Rourkela population to approach
the Forum, situated at Sundergarh,
a place 100 km away;
-
Re-routing of Dhanbad-Alleppey
Express train through
Chennai Central;
-
Campaigned against non
transferring of excise duty concessions
(to the consumers) extended by the union
government to the industry;
-
Better upkeep of the railway
coaches of Utkal Kalinga
Express and other trains;
-
Reintroduction AC Chair
Car in Ispat Express;
-
Refunding of booking
advance by M/s APSL and M/s LML;
and many more.
It
will not be an exaggeration to add
that its activities have added to the
confidence of the Rourkela population,
against unethical business practices.
The fifth Voluntary Consumer Organisation
in the country to have set
up a Consumer Information
Centre, with the
support of Ministry of Consumer Affairs
and Public Distribution, Govt. of India.
Has earned a niche for creating
consumer awareness
and handling of individual
as well as group/class
grievances. It is bringing
out an English monthly Advantage
Consumer, to educate
the consumers. It is represented in various
Advisory bodies.
An Aware Consumer is
an Asset to the Nation
Through this site effort will
be made to disseminate all relevant
information and answers
to many of the queries which are frequently
asked. Knowledge is power and
ignorance is the root cause of all exploitation.
As a consumer, we hope you will find
the site quite useful. Since ours is a voluntary
organisation with meagre resources
we have designed the site on our own and are
sure there will be lot of scope to improve. As such
we invite the public and the visitors to this
site to communicate their valuable feedback, so
that we may improve the contents of this site.
Lots & Lots
of information in store
for you to tap, in the Information Section.
Why wait to click on
Information.
If you are keen
to support the Council, you may send in
your donations
through crossed Cheques/Demand
Drafts, drawn in favour of "Consumer
Protection Council, Rourkela".
All donations to the Council are exempted
under sec. 80G of the Income Tax Act.
The Council is also registered under the FCRA (Foreign
Contribution Regulation Act).
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