Pending consumer issues to be resolved

Hyderabad : The Consumer Protection Act was enacted on December 23 in 1986. On the occasion on Monday, Telangana State Consumers Affairs Cell set a target to resolve cases pending at State, District Consumer Forums in time-bound manner. During the last four years, Telangana Consumer Forum registered 5,684 cases, of which 2,999 were disposed of and the remaining 2,685 cases are pending. District Consumer Forums filed 94,105 cases. Till now, 89,057 cases were disposed of and 5,048 cases were pending.

The main objective of Consumers Affairs Cell is to provide better protection of consumer’s interests at free of cost. Effective safeguards are provided to the consumer, against various types of exploitations and unfair dealings, relying mainly on compensatory rather than a disciplinary or preventive approach under the Act. It applies to all goods and services unless specifically exempted, which covers private, public and cooperative sectors. It also provides speedy, inexpensive adjudication.

With the huge response from consumers, Civil Supplies Department has focused to strengthen to Telangana Consumer Affairs Cell. The Consumer Redressal Center and Legal Metrology Department will redress the complaints by cooperating with each other. In the last 12 months, the Legal Metrology Department conducted raids on several Multiplexes, Shopping malls, seeds, fertilisers and pesticides companies, petrol pumps, weighing bridges, MNC godowns, popular garments shops, jewellery shops, wholesale fire crackers shops and booked 3,059 cases and seized goods worth Rs 25.08 crore. Under this Redressal System, the complainant can make a complaint on white paper or in the prescribed format supplied by the Centre free of cost. After receiving the complaint, a notice will be served to the respondent by giving a date to attend the counselling in the Centre. Counselling will be conducted every Saturday. After hearing both parties, the cases will be settled with the consent of both parties.

The unsettled cases, will be advised to the District Consumer Forum concerned for settlement through legal measures. Telangana State Consumer Help Line Service 1800-42500333 Facebook: Consumer Information Redressal Centre Twitter: Telangana Consumer Info and Redressal Center, the consumers can lodge their complaints through www.consumeradvice.in. Commissioner of Civil Supplies Department Akun Sabharwal said the Telangana Consumer Affairs Cell registers all the cases free of cost. If anyone feels that they have been cheated can approach Telangana Consumer Redressal Cell and register their case in writing on a white paper. No legal or other charges will be collected. All efforts were being made to strengthen the Redressal Cell and resolve cases at the earliest.