Govt’s plan for consumer-care centres hits snag; may take off by month-end

The Centre’s plan to roll out Consumer Care Centres across a dozen cities is behind schedule with one set of centres, called Grahak Suvidha Kendras (GSK), yet to be established.

Expressions of interest from Voluntary Consumer Organisations (VCOs) to run GSKs for three years were to be submitted to the Ministry for Food and Consumer Affairs by December 1.

The centres, which will serve as one-stop consumer assistance points, were expected to be instituted last month.

Around 46 applications have been received and sources said that a number of VCOs not meeting the criteria had slowed down the pilot project, which will now only take off at the end of February.

“We are running slowly but there’s a good response. With seven regions demarcated, it means about the same number of applications per region. A lot of VCOs have not met the criteria so the process is becoming more selective,” an official told BusinessLine .

Delays in the flagship have resulted mainly from applicants falling short of the requirement to have at least five years’ experience in the consumer awareness/advocacy spheres and registering a minimum turnover of ₹1 crore annually over the same period.

Consumer awareness activists have criticised the lack of trained personnel to help buyers’ tackle grievances with purchased goods and services.

As a result, VCOs were to be brought onboard to provide counselling to consumers across all 676 districts and help them seek redressal at consumer courts.

“The VCOs have experience in handling such problems and we lack personnel at the moment. Given their expertise, the Department of Consumers Affairs in the Ministry felt that they were best equipped to help consumers seek redress from consumer laws and register complaints in the right fora,” said another official.

He added that budget constraints made it more prudent to outsource work to such bodies that had their own infrastructure and adequately skilled workers. The Department operated on a budget of ₹140 crore in the 2014-15 fiscal that was scaled down from ₹220 crore.

Official sources also stated that the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill was being reviewed by the Law Secretary and would be taken to the Cabinet shortly.

It is expected to be presented in Parliament during the Budget Session after having been delayed for the Winter Session.

“The Parliamentary Standing Committee should clear it by June and this will allow us to begin the process of establishing the consumer protection authority for consumers to file class action suits by around next January.

“We will then request for adequate provisions in the following Budget,” said an official.