Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 21: Consumer rights should be protected at any cost and it is the responsibility of enforcing agencies to safeguard their interests.
This was stated by the Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali during the inaugural programme of Consumer Awareness Week to be celebrated from October 21 – 27.
Director FCS&CA Jammu, G S Chib and Director FCS&CA Kashmir Tasaduq Jeelani were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that many business men in order to maximize their profits, often forget the interests of consumers and start exploiting them by the means of overcharging, underweighting, selling of adulterated poor quality goods, misleading the consumers by giving false advertisements etc. Therefore to put a check on these unfair trade practices and safeguard the interests of consumers, such awareness programmes should be organized frequently so as to generate maximum awareness regarding consumer rights.
Zulfkar said that with the opening of Bureau of Indian Standards office in Jammu, local manufacturers are able to adopt better manufacturing practices as per set Indian Standards. Hallmark on jewellery has been made mandatory so that consumers interest are safeguarded and the regulatory bodies have also been empowered for checking the quality of the products and take requisite action against the violators, he further said.
Stressing on the need to deal with the issue of food adulteration with iron hands, Zulfkar directed all the enforcement agencies including Food Safety and Legal Metrology Department to ensure availability of quality food items in the market especially during festive season.
“We have to protect our children from adulterated foods and other harmful chemicals that may be hidden in the daily consumables and ensure that our future generations are able to live in safe and healthy environment”, he said.
Consumer Protection Act will be strengthened to make the law deterrent to deal with the violators while effective grievance redressal mechanism has already put in place, added the Minister.
Responding to the issues raised by the representatives of traders and consumer protection organizations, Zulfkar said that in addition to the already existing 2 helpline numbers set up by the department, an additional grievance redressal cell will be established at DC Office Jammu and will ensure no excessive charging on any products in any circumstances.
Taking forward the initiative of consumer awareness, it was informed to the Minister that Dry Fruit Retailer Association Jammu has assured to regularize the price of dry fruits and to display price, quality and quantity on the packaged items. Further it was informed that price of electric decoration lightings will also be regularized to benefit the consumers.
Earlier, representatives of Bureau of Indian Standards and Food Safety Department informed the gathering about their functioning and about the do’s and dont’s before buying any product for their use.
President Consumer Welfare Association Vikram Gaur, President Consumer Protection Organization D R Danish, President Chamber of Trader Federation Jammu Neeraj Anand and President Federation of Retailers Association Jammu Yashpal Gupta also spoke on the occasion.
Among others, Joint Controller LMD Jammu V S Sambyal, Joint Director FCS&CA Jammu Mansoor Ahmed Choudhary, Deputy Director LMD Manoj Prabhakar, senior officers, representatives of oil companies, prominent citizens and consumers were present on the occasion.
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