Celebration of the World Consumer Rights Day by Durgapur Consumer Association.

Celebration of the World Consumer Rights Day by Durgapur Consumer Association.

15th March was the World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) and Durgapur Consumer Association (VCO under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Govt. of India) observed the day in befitting manner. They organized a seminar on this issue on their office room at Benachity where many of the dignitaries, life members, officials and many other people were present. Mr. T.S.Mukherjee, President of Durgapur Consumer Association (DCA) said, “Every year we observe this Day through various programmes like street corner meetings, Distribution of handbills and leaflets, Seminars and workshops to make the general people aware about their rights and duties and at the same time to help them to acquire knowledge and skills needed to make them informed, to increase confidence of choices about goods and services and to know the basic Consumer Rights and Responsibilities and at the same time how to act on them. But this year we are observing this Day in our office at the Benachity House, Ddurgapur-4 and arranged a seminar only where a number of people attended spontaneously and gained immense knowledge through various discussions and verbal communications. ”

“In 1996 at the initial stage this Association was formed with only 10 to 15 members and we feel proud to say that now we are nearly 350 and we belong from all sects of people from Engineer to Doctors, from Lawyer to Poets and from common people to social activists” – avers the President.

Throughout the year this Association conducts several meetings and seminars with many service providers and other institutions with whom the consumers are directly associated. On the 25th Anniversary Day of the Consumer Protection Act that is on 24th December 2011 Durgapur Consumer Association in association with the Federation of Consumer Associations, West Bengal (FCAWB) arranged a State Level workshop on the Consumer Education on Telecom Services at Hotel Peerless Inn, City Center where Chandranath Chatterjee, Secretary of FCAWB and many other registered members of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and other dignitaries were present in that workshop. Many a people shared their experiences with the service providers and people gained much knowledge on several issues. 

T S Mukherjee

Similarly on 21st March they had conducted a programme for Consumers in the Capital Market on Investment in Capital Market at Hotel Peerless Sarovar Portico, in joint collaboration with Calcutta Stock Exchange Limited (CSE) and Federation of Consumer Association, West Bengal (FCAWB) and good number of people attended the seminar. Chandranath Chatterjee, Secretary of FCAWB said, “This type of Seminars helps the people a lot. I appreciate the endeavour of DCA for their initiative for such Seminars and Workshops particularly with various service providers, Stock Exchange and other financial institutions. Now everybody should be financially literate to safe their investments because wise investment is safe deposit. All the consumers should be well aware about their legal rights and their duties in case of any deviation from such things. ”

Mr. Amit Santra – Manager Surveillance delivered the Key Note Address. In the Interactive Session Mr. B. Madhav Reddy, MD & CEO of CSE Limited delivered his valuable lecture on this Investor Awareness Initiative Programme.

From the inception till now DCA has sorted out more than 1000 written complaints and those remained out of their jurisdiction sent to the District Consumer Forum for redressal. “Since it is the only organization in this vast industrial area and complaints are coming huge in numbers; we are unable to redress all such things in our Office amicably. In our District there is only one Consumer Court in Burdwan Sadar only. We have requested many a time to the Honourable Minister of Consumer Affairs for establishing a Consumer Court/Circuit Bench in Durgapur but the matter is still lying pending.” –said the President further.

“Consumer Protection Act 1986 under the Parliament of India which aims to provide for better protection of the interests of consumers and for that purpose the Department is undertaking various multi-media programmes to generate consumer awareness in many ways. Though it can be said that awareness is still low in our country yet for various campaign through Radio and TV like ‘Jago Grahak Jago’ and others people are becoming much conscious and we hope things will be much better in the near future”- says T. S. Mukherjee, President of Durgapur Consumer Association.