The District Consumer Forum with a mandate to address difficulties of consumers has passed no order in last four and a half months. Bizarre it may sound, but there is no stenographer in the office to pen down the orders and get it typed on the order sheet. The stenographer, serving earlier at the District Consumer Forum office retired on December 15 following which no person was deputed to replace him.
“Not a single order has been passed by the District Consumer Forum after December 15 as there was no stenographer available in the office to get the orders typed on the paper,” said advocate PN Ram who has filed some complaints before the forum after he felt cheated by a leading bath fittings company.
Officials at the District Consumer Forum tried to take the matter to the State Government, but no person has been deputed in the office so far. “We also tried to make temporary arrangement by requesting the retired person to continue till a permanent solution was found out, but he also left after some after he was not paid for two month hard work,” said an official at the District Consumer Forum requesting anonymity.
Secretary of the State Consumer Forum Dashrath Chandra Das also accepted the fact and said that the forum was serious in this regard and was forced to make some internal arrangement after losing all hopes from the State Government. “We are trying to get someone appointed on the post through outsourcing so that day to day work of the forum does not get hampered for the time being who will be removed after we get some replacement from the Government side,” said the Secretary.
As per the data obtained from the District Consumer Forum, there are as many as 757 cases pending till April this year and the number is likely to increase further if proper arrangement was done to dispose of the cases.
“On an average one case is filed everyday here in the District Consumer Forum which means piling up of at least 25-30 more cases every month. Till last month there were as many as 757 cases pending with the Forum,” said another staff requesting anonymity.
Interestingly, a PIl demanding appointment of permanent staff and Chairman in District Consumer Forum has also been filed in the Jharkhand High Court and the court has asked the forum to reply in this regard.
Meanwhile Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Ramvilas Paswan said that his ministry is in the process of strengthening district and State level consumer forums to empower the consumers. He said that he has instructed the department to auto register complaints within 21 days.