KGiving impetus to consumer education, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh tops the list of consumer redressal in the country.
An analysis of the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) by the Centre for Consumer Studies, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi reveals Uttar Pradesh stands first in the consumer complaints followed by Maharashtra and other States.
The study conducted by Professor Suresh Misra, Professor & Coordinator, Centre for Consumer Studies, at IIPA New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh received over 47000 consumer complaints during January to August 2018 and in this according to him more than 60 percent have been addressed and resolved to the benefits of the consumer.
He said, “We have done an analysis of the NCH from January 2018 to August 2018 and we have received more consumer complaints from UP and over 60 per cent have been resolved.”
“NCH is the unique model in the world which addresses the consumer redressal with Government and private partnership. More than 500 top companies are part of this venture taken up by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs,” he added.
National Consumer Helpline (NCH) is the grievance redressal mechanism set up by the Department of Consumer Affairs, to educate and handhold consumers in redressing their consumer related issues and make efforts to resolve his grievance.
NCH was started in March 2005, and has been handling consumer queries and grievances pan India for the last thirteen years.
Since May 2014, the Project is managed by the Centre for Consumer Studies, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.
A consumer can seek advice , information or file a complaint using toll free number 1800 -11- 4000 and short code, 14404, or SMS on +918130009809 or file complaint directly on online portal www.consumerhelpline.gov.in . One can use ‘Consumer App’ downloadable from online play stores. NCH advice depends on the stage exhausted by complainant and the resolution expected by him. NCH handles calls in English and Hindi only. There are 6 Zonal Consumer Helplines which feed into the NCH - one each in Patna, Bangalore, Jaipur Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Guwahati, which were set up in October 2017, established to cater to local languages and regional issues.
“NCH’s hallmark of redressing consumer grievances is by the ‘Alternate Dispute Redressal system (ADR) at the pre-litigation level. NCH provides an automated platform to escalate grievances to companies and organizations for redress and resolution.
Companies and organizations are invited to partner with NCH for ‘free, fair and fast grievance resolution of their consumers/customers. This is a completely voluntary initiative. The alternate redressal mechanism for resolving consumer grievances is branded as ‘Convergence’ and has proven to be a successful model for resolving consumer grievances at the pre - litigation level” adds Suresh Misra.
According to Deepika Sur, the Project Manager of the NCH in the Convergence initiative, 460 companies have partnered with NCH, grievances received by these companies are on ‘real time’, and companies update the portal with the a suitable redressal at an average time frame of 30-60 days. For companies not under the convergence partnership, grievances are forwarded to them for redressal and updated on the portal by NCH. In addition, 21 Government Departments are mapped to the NCH portal to handle grievances for their respective departments.
Suresh Misra says consumer empowerment branded ‘Jagriti’ is an inherent part of the activities of the National Consumer Helpline.
“Programmes in Community Radios are aired giving information on consumer issues in different sectors. Nukkad Natak are enacted on various themes on which grievances are received. This is a powerful medium, and has a wide range of audience from all classes of society” he adds.