Marking the National Consumer Rights Day on Friday, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Leena Nandan said that the proactive participation of the consumers is required as the Centre has transitioned from 'Consumer Protection' to 'Consumer Empowerment and Prosperity.
With an aim to strengthen the 5 pillars of Consumer Rights: Awareness, Choice, Quality, Grievance Redressal, & Feedback, the Department of Consumer Affairs celebrated National Consumer Day 2021 with the theme "Consumer - Know your Rights" today.
Speaking toon the occasion, Nandan said, "What we want to really promote is that consumers must know their rights. Consumer Protection Act has been implemented last year. There are many provisions in the Act to protect the rights. But unless the consumers know what are these rights, how they can go to Consumer Commissions? There is a National Consumer helpline, anybody can register his complaint and it gets followed up by the helpline."
Elaborating the steps taken by the Commission to spread the awareness among the consumers, the Department Secretary said that several videos have been rolled out in all the languages.
"There are also rules to safeguard the interest of consumers like MRP, date of expiry of commodities. We want the consumers to know all of this. For this, we have made several videos in all the languages. We have tried to disseminate information through Panchayat Bhawan, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Railway stations," she said.
"Now we are also taking it up in a big way through post offices etc. so that we could appraise the consumers of their rights. They should be cautious and use their rights. As the law is for you people," Nandan said.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, provides for the establishment of a three-tier quasi-judicial mechanism - District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, where consumers can file consumer complaints about redressal.
The concerned Consumer Commissions adjudicate on these cases and pass orders as per the due procedure. Further, the Central Consumer Protection Authority has been created under the provisions of this Act, to inquire into matters that affect the rights of consumers as a class.
Earlier this month, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha had said that the Department of Consumer Affairs generates consumer awareness through video spots, banners, hoardings, posters, etc. on issues of like salient features of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, Packaged Commodities Rules, Hallmarking, Consumer Grievance Redressal mechanism, etc, said a press release.
Other Central Government Departments like the Ministry of Railways & Department of Posts as also State Governments/UT Administrations are also involved in the dissemination of consumer awareness messages.
( With inputs from ANI )
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