HYDERABAD: IN a sad twist, the high efficiency of ADRC is restricted to just the city as most of the district cells aren’t fully functional. This despite the fact that complaints from certain districts are higher than the city itself. Currently, the ADRC is operational in the city through the State Consumer Information Centre (SCIC) located at the TS civil supplies Bhavan. In districts District Consumer Information Centre (DCIC) are located in district headquarters. But, DCICs are not fully operational.
According to the officials at SCIC, there are nine DCIC that have been constituted to aid consumers who wished to settle disputes through ADRC without having to go through the legal hassles of filing complaints at the disputes redressal commission (DRC). “There are DCIC established but they are practically dysfunctional. All of them are run by consumer welfare organisations and funds were provided to them during its constitution. They have to be revived now,” said an official at the SCIC.
V Gouri Sankara Rao, President, Confederation of All Telangana Consumer Organisation (CATCO) observed that the organisations that have been entrusted with the task to carry out ADRC at districts are not being financially supported. “They exist but they are not aiding consumers to solve disputes. And, that is causing many to file complaints at the DRC which can taken months together to be resolved,” he said.
A look at the monthly statement of complaints filed at all the districts by the DRCs in April 2018 of the State highlight that the total number of cases filed were high in districts like Karimnagar, Warangal, and Mahboobnagar. Interestingly, those complaints exceeded that which were filed in the three district forums of Hyderabad. For instance, in Warangal 50 complaints were filed but the three forums in the city registered less than 13 complaints.