THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All advertisements in print and electronic media which mislead the consumers would be regulated by the Central Government soon, said K V Thomas, Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs here on Monday.
According to the Minister, most of the advertisements promoting sexual aids and equipment would come under the scanner after an expert panel consisting of senior media personalities hand over their recommendations on the same in the first week of February.
He clarified that this measure to ensure the rights of consumers would not be at the cost of freedom of expression.
He was speaking at a function for handing over the central share of the corpus fund of `7.5 crore for streamlining the consumer protection.
Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Shibu Baby John received the amount at the function presided over by Transport Minister V S Sivakumar. Rs 2.5 crore, the rest of the amount in the total allocation of Rs 10 crore would be borne by the state.
Kerala is the first state to receive the central share of corpus fund.
Thomas said that the BIS hallmarking for gold, silver, cement and mineral water will be made compulsory for controlling the fraudulent practices by setting up hallmark laboratories.
He also said that Idukki and Malappuram would be declared as hundred percent hallmark districts soon.