INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PROF. K.V. THOMAS, HON’BLE MINISTER (I/C) OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION ON 31ST JANUARY, 2012 AT 11.15 A.M. AT THE NATIONAL COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, NEW DELHI:
Distinguished Members of the Central Consumer Protection Council and Hon’ble Ministers of various States, senior officials from Ministries and Departments of the Government of India, Heads of NGO’s, officers from the Department of Consumer Affairs, friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen:
It gives me great pleasure to be amongst you all at this 26th meeting of the CCPC where we have gathered to deliberate on various issues concerning consumer protection – not only to revisit our achievements but also to examine issues concerning consumer protection in depth which may need further improvements.
We have just celebrated completion of 25 glorious years of Consumer Protection Act 1986. A watershed in consumer movement, the enactment of the Act has been a benevolent social legislation, laying down the rights of consumers and providing means for their promotion and protection. The Consumer Protection Act mandates formulation of “Consumer Protection Councils” at District, State and National levels with an objective to protect rights and interests of consumers. The CCPC is the apex body functioning at the national level in which you are all members with a significant role to advise and guide on the policy issues relating to the interests of the consumers. Your valuable views and suggestions will guide us to improve our functioning towards consumer welfare. The consumer forums, the Lok Adalats provide inexpensive and speedy justice. You all may be aware that the three-tier quasi-judicial machinery set-up has, as on date, disposed of more than 32 lakh cases so far with a disposal rate of almost 90 per cent. The Department has taken a number of steps to improve the functioning of the consumer forums which includes financial assistance to the States for creation of infrastructural assets for better working environment of the forums. You will also be happy to know that under the project “Computerization and Computer Networking of Consumer Forums in Country” we have tried to computerize and network the consumer forums for better, transparent and easier functioning to protect consumers from all forms of exploitation and to ensure that the Consumer Protection Act delivers on its promises to the consumers.
“A Consumer Protection Regime” does not merely consist of laws and legislations. It is rather a constant interaction between businesses, government regulators, media, civil society organizations and most importantly, the consumers. The Department of Consumer Affairs has been addressing all the possible areas of bottlenecks, those which arise while implementing the Consumer Protection Act. We have comprehensively amended the Act three times in the years 1991, 1993 and in 2002 to make it more purposeful for the benefit of consumers. I am happy to inform you that in order to widen the scope of the Act for a 4th time and to remove the existing bottlenecks and to speed up the disposal of the cases within the specified time-frame, the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2011, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16th December, 2011. I earnestly hope that the new amendment provisions would further improve the performance of the machinery in protecting the interests of consumers.
“Jago Grahak Jago”, the innovative campaign of the Department of Consumer Affairs educates the layman on his rights as a consumer through the electronic and print media. They succeeded in reaching a wider audience to educate them on their rights as consumers. Their conceptualization has been so attractive that even a layman can understand its message that has been put across in a simple way.
The Department is also looking at the issue of misleading advertisements of dishonest manufacturers, traders and service providers. These basically violate the consumer’s rights especially to “information and choice” and thereby have the potential to cause the consumer financial loss and even mental agony. As their influence on consumer choice is undeniable, the advertisements should observe fairness in competition and should respect the professional ethics so that the consumer’s need to be informed on choices in the market place is better served. Misleading and false advertisements are not only unethical but also distort competition and consumer choice. Our aim here has been to evolve a holistic, workable, comprehensive and enforceable approach. I look forward to having your wise counsel when we take up this important agenda during the course of the proceedings.
Another important area that has been engaging our attention is wastage of food witnessed at big social gatherings due to conspicuous consumption. This is highly reprehensible especially when millions of our people are struggling for a morsel of food and need to be tackled at societal level with the co-operation and involvement of all right thinking individuals.
Let me, before summing up recall what Mahatma Gandhi had said on the consumer and I quote: “A Consumer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us; we are on him. He is not an interruption to our work; he is the purpose of it. We are not doing a favour to a consumer by giving him an opportunity. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to serve him.” This statement of the Mahatma succinctly puts in a few words what all our laws, acts and statutes must stand for.
Now, I would request all of you to kindly share with us your views, opinions and suggestions on how best our policies and programmes can be shaped further so that they become valuable and powerful tools in the hands of the consumer with which he/she can become wise when it comes to acquiring the right product or service at the right price. I also take the opportunity to thank Hon’ble Ministers of various States/UTs who have taken time off their busy schedule to be present here. I hope the deliberations that we are going to have now will prove to be quite beneficial to one and all.
JAI HIND!
