Every year National Consumers Rights Day is celebrated on 24th December in Jammu & Kashmir for the purposes of consumer awareness the way it is celebrated in other parts of the country. While irrefutable fact is that National Consumers Rights Day celebrations have been reduced to seminars, conferences and debates for the purposes of huge publicity about the consumer’s rights through electronic and print media but no new features of consumers’ interests are announced here in Jammu & Kashmir. People concerned with the protection of consumers in Jammu & Kashmir though want the government to invoke tough measures for the protection of consumers against their exploitation by traders and more so during the chilly season of winter in Kashmir valley when Jammu-Srinagar highway remains shut for days together from time to time, but attention of the field functionaries of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS & CA) department for the purposes of intervention is found missing on ground even on the day National Consumers Rights day is celebrated. A consumer is obliged to know about the consumer rights and functionaries of consumer affairs department about their duties under consumer protection act. Though Consumer Protection Act enacted by parliament in the year 1986 is designed to protect consumer’s rights in all it’s forms and manifestations but allegations are galore that rights of consumers are randomly violated by traders in connivance with the field functionaries of the department of Food Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCS & CA) department who are often blamed for inaction during chilly season of winter in Kashmir valley. So the public perception about protection of consumer rights is that field functionaries of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (GSC&CA) department by the dint of their action allegedly become protectors of those suppressing the rights of consumers but not the protectors of the rights of consumers.
Individually, it may be difficult for any consumer to fight against unscrupulous traders and service providers most of whom are desperate to cheat the consumers, but it is also an irrefutable fact that consumers are at liberty to organise themselves in consumer protection groups to fight for their rights. Since consumers have rights to make enquiries before purchasing or hiring any service, So they reserve the rights to protect their interests on their own.
While the consumers have to take care of their rights themselves, the field functionaries of the Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) department are allegedly going hand in glove with the traders engaged in fleecing the gullible consumers in violation of the consumers act 1986 and henceforth leaving little scope for consumers to fight for their rights. Though the National Consumer Rights Day is celebrated in the country with an intention to create awareness among the consumers about their rightsd, but debates, seminars and conferences on the National Consumers Rights Day are reduced to wide publicity of government achievements listed on papers and invisible on ground. While the field functionaries of the FCS&CA department have to keep the consumers informed about the quality, quantity, composition and all details of the purchase they make, the awareness campaign about the consumers’ rights is missing on ground even on the day when the consumer awareness day is being celebrated. Individually, it may be difficult for any consumer to fight against unscrupulous traders and service providers most of whom are desperate to cheat the consumers, but it is also an irrefutable fact that consumers are at liberty to organise themselves in consumer protection groups to fight for their rights. Since consumers have rights to make enquiries before purchasing or hiring any service, So they reserve the rights to protect their interests on their own.
