Consumers Rights: Nagaland still lacks awareness

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Sep. 10: More than 30 years have passed since the enactment of Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 1986, which deals as an attempt to remove the helplessness of consumers against the powerful and dominant players like the merchant and businessmen, often described as racketeers.
Sadly in Nagaland, the awareness about the CPA is miserably low giving the racketeers, an upper hand to exploit consumers’ rights and an advantage to dominate the market.

In regards to this, the Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO), through a press release, has recently stated various complaints about to consumers rights’ exploitation including the various courier services where the letters or parcel which has been paid for home delivery have never performed in that manner but having the ‘behaviour of calling over phone with a request to come and collect it at the their counter.’

Recently the NVCO stated that they received a complaint stating that a courier counter in Dimapur refused to deliver to homes with a reason that they do not have man power.

The NVCO condemned the action of the people who were running courier services in any name or form for not delivering the letters or parcel to the consumer’s home which has been paid already.

The NVCO president, Kezhokhoto Savi in a press statement, said that he received complaints from consumers about butchers manipulating the weighing scale at Lower Chandmari junction taxi stand in Kohima.

Savi said that he personally visited the said butcher shop early morning on Sep. 5 and ‘detected that an extra meat and bones were kept at one corner of the plate where meat is kept for measurement and the balance is kept in such a manner where buyers could not see’.

“The butcher shop did not have license. The NVCO condemned the action of the butchers for their ‘misbehaviours and unethical’ business technique,” Savi stated.
The NVCO president also stated that he had received a complaint that a Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) by the director of Postal Services, Nagaland division in Kohima for leasing of office premises building on rent and alleged of certain discrepancies in this regard. He said that the complainant’s building was selected but thereafter no communication was made despite the lapse of considerable time.

In a telephonic interview with Eastern Mirror, the president of NVCO, Kezhokhoto Savi said that ‘Nagaland still lacks awareness’ about the CPA.
“We take the advantage of consumers’ complaints and expose it through the media so that the society will be well aware of such exploitation,” he explained.

Saying that the government also has to play their part of the role to make the public aware, Savi recalled the recent cases about the detection of formalin in fish, all over Nagaland.

“The people and the department were not aware of it. When huge amount of formalin in fish were detected by some concerned department, only then the government agency woke up,” he divulged.

“The role of the state government is also important but the public, as a consumer, must be aware so that they can awaken the government,” Savi maintained.
On being asked about how to resolve such problems, Savi told this reporter that the main role lies with the public. “As an organisation, we do not have the authority or rights to act on our own so we cannot take any action on our part, expect to create more awareness,” he lamented.

According to Savi, it is the duty of the consumer to know how examine the products that they are checking such as the manufacturing date, the ingredients, and the nutritional information. “If they are aware of it, they will know that such sub-standard products will lead to skin cancer and rashes,” he added.

Savi also mentioned about the present Bharat Bandh that is prevalent in the country. “With the rise in prices in essential commodities through Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the entire mainland people are fighting whereas most of our people are still ignorant as they are not aware of consumer rights. We remain in our complaint and we do not do much,” he sighed.

Savi also said that the government of India has requested the states several times to establish slaughter house. “Almost all the states have established slaughter house but Nagaland is yet to establish it,” he complained while adding that “the concerned municipal councils should not only collect money for taxes but should also contribute their services by providing experts to make sure that food in market is safe.”