Minister denounces casual approach to Consumer Rights; calls for SCPC to be more active especially in Rural Sikkim

ANAND OBEROI
GANGTOK, 14 Feb: After a gap of four years, the State Consumer Protection Council (SCPC) held its tenth meeting here at Chintan Bhawan today. The meeting today advocated the need for the council to be more ‘active’ and serious deliberations were held on the areas that needed rectification and change on consumer protection activities within the state of Sikkim.
Present was the FCS&CA Department Minister, DB Thapa who is also the Chairman of the State Council. In his address he stated, “We have to be very specific that this meeting is held twice annually henceforth.” The need for understanding the importance of the Council meeting was highlighted by the Minister who also stressed that the Sikkim Consumer Protection Rules of 2006 and the Sikkim Consumer Protection (Amendment) Rules of 2009 be implemented with force in the coming days.
It may be informed that the objectives of the SCPC is to promote and protect the rights of the consumers such as awareness on the marketing and sale of goods which are hazardous to life and property, the right to be informed about the quantity, potency, standards, price and purity of goods so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices, the right to be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety of goods and services at competitive prices, the right to be heard and to be assured that consumer’s interest will receive due consideration at appropriate forums, the right to seek redressed against unfair trade practices [or restrictive trade practices] or unscrupulous exploitation of consumers and the right to consumer education.
“I can see that there is a lack of active spirit regarding the implementation of the rules. We have to understand that we have a big responsibility as we are the guardians for the gullible people here in the state. We have to start being more serious and effective,” stressed the Minister.
He further stated that in recent years, the trend of the people in the state was to opt for business and entrepreneurship as livelihoods which had increased the possibility of people indulging in negative activities which threatened consumer rights. In this regard he said that dissemination of awareness amongst the masses was now the need of the hour. He also suggested the district consumer council to hold a meeting to discuss the activities of council at least twice in a year.
“With people opting to do business, their sole agenda will be to earn profits and it could be at the cost of compromising quality in consumer goods. This could be a challenging trend if not looked into with seriousness. We have to tackle this problem if we want a clean and fair consumer protection in Sikkim,” stated the Minister.
He also stressed that it was very important for the Council to now focus on rural areas in the state since these were the areas where the violation of the consumer protection rules could be evident. With many consumers in the urban towns now understanding that they have rights, the same could not be said for the rural areas, he informed. He also highlighted that the times before festive season was also when the Council should be more active and hold awareness programmes.
Present today for the meeting were representatives from various departments, council members along with Secretary cum Member Secretary, SCPC, Jemina Pradhan and Additional Secretary, LMU & CP Cell, FCS&CA Department, LP Pandey who also addressed the gathering.
During the meeting, open house discussions on the functioning of school consumer clubs, review of school syllabus text books regarding inclusion of consumer education, hallmarking of gold jewellery, inclusion of college, university in the consumer clubs, fixation of price in vegetable items and quality etc was also held.
 
The vote of thanks today was delivered by Additional Secretary, FCS& CA department