To strengthen consumer protection, the government on Wednesday launched two key initiatives – a portal on Grievances Against Misleading Advertisements (GAMA) and Grahak Suvidha Kendras (GSK) in seven cities. The portal will be linked to all State authorities concerned, select voluntary consumer organisations in the country and the sector regulators. 

Announcing the initiatives during a National Conference on Consumer Rights, organised by the Department of Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said GSKs, the one-stop consumer centres will be launched in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Kolkata, Patna and Delhi. 

Earlier, inaugurating the conference, Paswan said the government alone cannot adequately address several challenges whether from the perspective of the market or the consumer. There is a need, he said for all stakeholders – the Central government, State governments, voluntary organisations and elected representatives to work together to achieve this.

He said a consumer advocacy strategy should be adopted uniformly across sectors and geographies and must include consumer empowerment through awareness and education programmes and standardising contracts to ensure that they are not unfair to the consumer, enforcing codes of conduct on companies among others.

Keshav Desiraju, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, said towards harmonisation of the legislative framework and the regulatory apparatus, the government is modernising the legislative framework that governs consumer advocacy. “Comprehensive amendments to the Consumer Protection Act as well as the Bureau of Indian Standards Act have been finalised to ensure timely executive interventions,’ he added.

 

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