National Consumer Day: Awareness programme held

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: On the occasion of National Consumer Day, the Department of Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs on Thursday organised an awareness programme on consumer rights.
National Consumer Day is observed on 24 December every year to highlight the importance of the consumer movement as well as the need to make them aware and inform them their rights and responsibilities. On this day in the year 1986, the Consumer Protection Act came into force after receiving the presidential assent.
Deputy Advocate General of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, Rajesh Thapa, was the chief guest on the occasion.
In his address, Thapa highlighted various provisions enshrined in the different statute books and the ways the consumers can use them to assert their rights.
Highlighting the significance of the day, he stressed upon the opportunities and platforms available for the department to highlight the importance of the consumer rights, movement and the ways and means to make every consumer more aware of their rights and responsibilities. He also highlighted steps being taken to functionalise the consumer courts in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
Director FCS&CA Jammu, Jatinder Singh urged all the employees of the department to work diligently to make aware the citizens regarding their consumer rights and various forums which are available to register their grievances. He also thre light on the recent developments, which have significantly impacted the way businesses approach the consumer complaints.”They have empowered consumers to a greater extent including inclusion of online purchases under the ambit of the act”, he added.
He said that the main objective of the Consumer Protection Act is to provide consumers with effective safeguards against different types of exploitations such as defective goods, unsatisfactory services, and unfair trade practices.
Singh urged upon all the employees to work dedicatedly to check unfair trade practices and to ensure speedy and inexpensive settlements of consumer disputes.
Joint Director FCS&CA Jammu, Shagun Sharma highlighted various amendments made in recent times in the Consumer Protection Act 1986 and the six rights recognized under the Act. She also highlighted the theme of this year “The Sustainable Consumer”
Deputy Directors, Narinder Kaur and Javed Iqbal, Ram Dass, Assistant Directors of Jammu District and the staff members of the department also attended the awareness programme.