PUNE, March 10: In a bid to take stock of the work done by the State Government for the consumer movement in the last two years and chalk out the future course of action, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi will hold discussions with representatives of consumer bodies, trade organisations, universities and consumer district redressal fora at a consumer welfare awareness camp -- the first of its kind -- to be held here on March 12.Speaking to mediapersons on Monday, Bindumadhav Joshi, chairman of the state-level high-powered consumer welfare committee, said the consumer movement had been strengthened over the last two years, with a total of 34 consumer district redressal fora clearing 11,000 complaints within ten months of which 65 per cent had gone in the consumers' favour.
He pointed out the measures taken for protection of consumer rights in addition to reconstitution of the state consumer protection council which will decide policy matters. District-wise consumer protection cells resolve day-to-daygrievances and since the collector heads this cell along with 17 representatives from consumer bodies and 15 from the administration, it provides quick relief to the aggrieved party, Joshi said.
The Centre has allocated Rs 3.6 crore for setting up buildings to house the district level consumer redressal forum with work commencing in nine districts from April 1. The pending cases for the year 1996-97 will be settled within 90 days, he said, adding that in nearly 1,000 cases, liberal use of Section 27 of the Consumer Protection Act was applied to ensure that the opponents abided by the consumer forum's order.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
