Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said that he had taken a number of initiatives to make foodgrain management more efficient and ensure food security in the country.
Commenting on the completion of three years of the NDA government, Mr Paswan said that interests of farmers and consumers were high on the government’s agenda. He has issued guidelines, which are in the form of advisories, to state governments with the aim of providing transparency and convenience to consumers and establishing a grievance redressal mechanism for them.
The guidelines have been a huge step forward for the industry which has been facing problems under the pressure of a regulatory vacuum for a long time. It has come as a major respite for companies in the sector which have been facing some problems with reference to their business models coming under the scanner. That is however bound to change now.
Major reforms in public distribution system (PDS) for better targetting, transparency and accountability include automation of fair price shops, direct benefit transfer, Aadhaar seeding in PDS, deletion of ration cards and digital/cashless/less-cash payments.
Some of the FCI (Food Corporation of India) reforms include silos, use of modern technology in storage, depot online system, pension scheme and post-retirement medical scheme, liquidation of sugarcane arrears, abolition of levy system and stabilisation of prices of pulses.
The consumer protection initiatives are listed below:
National Consumer Helpline
A new Integrated Grievances Redressal Mechanism portal (INGRAM) will disseminate information to consumers and let them lodge grievances online with a facility to track status on real-time basis. This portal is available in both Hindi and English.
Grievances Against Misleading Advertisement (GAMA)
This was launched to address the grievances pertaining to misleading advertisements. Consumers can register complaints against false/misleading advertisements on this portal.
Other Digital Initiatives
An online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC) for e-commerce complaints was launched in December, 2016 and is in the process of being operationalised. A mobile app named “Smart Consumer” was launched in December 2016. This helps the consumer scan the bar code printed on any packaged commodity and thereby know the details of the product and company. He can also register a complaint.
Direct Selling
With the intention of facilitating “ease of doing business,” guidelines for direct selling were issued after detailed deliberations by an inter-ministerial committee. The guidelines are in the form of an advisory to state governments, provide transparency and ensure grievance redressal.
Bureau of Indian
Standards (BIS) Act, 2016
A new Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 2016 was notified on March 22, establishing the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India. The Act contains provisions for including goods, services and systems, besides articles and processes for the purpose of standardisation. It has enabling provisions for the Government to bring any article, process or service — which it considers necessary from the point of view of health, safety, environment, prevention of deceptive practices and security — under compulsory certification regime.
legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules
For ease of doing business, the legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules were amended to relax labelling norms on imported packages. An exemption was made for any thread which is sold in coils to handloom weavers in the interest of small weavers. To safeguard the interest of the readymade garment industry, an advisory removed loose garments from the legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules.