CONSUMER ORGANISATIONS SHOULD HELP REACH
BENEFITS OF GOVT. SCHEMES TO THE POOR : SHRI YADAV
Consumer organisations
in the country could play a key role in reaching the benefits
of various food related welfare schemes of the central government
being implemented with a subsidy of about Rs.36000 crore; said
Shri Sharad Yadav, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and public
Distribution. Inaugurating the 23rd meeting of the Central Consumer
Protection Council (CCPC) here today, the minister said awareness
of the consumer about the various welfare programmes for the people
like the scheme for construction of rural roads, implementation
of Antyodaya Anna Yojana, Food for Work Programme etc. would lead
to their successful implementation.
Shri Yadav urged
the consumer councils to take up issues which affect the interest
of consumer or cases where the redressal machinery should be strengthend.
Quoting an example, the Minister mentioned the current issue of
introduction of conditional access system (CAS) where the consumers
have taken a definite stand on its implementation and an NGO taking
up the cause of ensuring safety of bottled drinking water. He
urged the State Governments to strengthen the consumer redressal
mechanism in their states so as to take up the cause of consumers
and to implement the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act-2002
which came into force with effect from 15th March,
2003.
Speaking on the occasion
Shri V. Sreenivasa Prasad, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs,
Food and Public Distribution said that the Ministry had identified
some project areas where working groups as suggested by the Council’s
last meeting could be set up since the identified subject matter
would affect the consumers interest in their daily lives. The
Ministry had provided a grant of Rs. 5 lakh for setting up District
Consumer Information
Centre (DCIC) in
each district of the country over a period of 5 years. Under this
scheme 44 DCIC proposals had been sanctioned for 18 States and
Union Territories on the recommendations received from State Governments.
Under another proposal to set up Consumer Clubs in Schools a grant
of Rs. 10,000 per annum will be given by the Department for each
consumer club from the Consumer Welfare Fund, the Minister said.
He also called upon the State Governments to set up Consumer Protection
Council in all districts at the earliest so that the local problems
could be discussed and State Governments got proper feedback and
valuable suggestions.
Shri Wajahat Habibullah,
Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs in his welcome address
urged the State Governments to make consumer courts more "consumer
friendly" by utilising the one-time grant available to them for
strengthening the infrastructure of redressal forums in their
States. The Department of Consumer Affairs had launched a scheme
of one-time financial assistance of Rs. 61.8 crore during 1995-99
for this purpose and the utilisation so far is 66.3 per cent,
he pointed out. So far, 20.5 lakh cases have been filed in the
consumer forums and over 83 per cent of these have been disposed
of.
Shri Habibullah,
called upon the State Governments to promote consumer movement
in their respective regions and mentioned that the central government
had constituted a Consumer Welfare Fund to provide financial assistance
for promoting consumer awareness and strengthening consumer movement
in the country particularly the rural areas. The Standing Committee
of Consumer Welfare Fund has so far approved 571 proposals involving
an assistance of Rs. 8.38 crore; he said.
The meeting was convened
by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
for deliberating ways and means for promoting consumer awareness
and for the effective implementation of Consumer Protection Act.
