NEW DELHI: When the fast food culture is spreading across the country, the Maggi affair may have forced the government to think about stringent consumer protection laws. However, the government’s efforts for creating consumer awareness is still at a tardy pace.
While protection of consumer interests and welfare is a critical function of good governance, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is facing less allocation of funds. The government spends a meagre Rs 75 crore annually to create consumer awareness in the country. Even this amount was not fully utilised by the ministry in the last few years.
To a query by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on how the government proposes to educate more than 130 crore people with Rs 75 crore, the ministry stated that it wants to use new mediums such as digital cinema, popular websites, LCD screens at public places, audio announcement systems at bus stands, bulk SMSs and cable TV channels to educate consumers. The committee, headed by TDP member J C Diwakar Reddy, presented the report in the Budget session of Parliament.
The ministry also informed the committee that under this scheme, funds are provided to states for consumer awareness programmes based on local themes.
In the states, the scenario is worse. Under the scheme of strengthening consumer fora, states are not submitting complete proposals for grants. Release of grants under the scheme of Strengthening Consumer Fora and State Helpline is dependent on receiving of proposals from state governments. Under the scheme, only one proposal was received from West Bengal and grant was released in 2014-15. No other states furnished complete proposals. The ministry also does not receive utility certificates from states, and even though states are not sending utilisation certificates, the ministry is still releasing funds to them.
“There are standing instructions given in November 2012 by the Department of Expenditure that the releases should simply not be made if there are pending Utilisation Certificates. However, the difficulty is that there is also pressure on the department to spend. If I do not spend, I will be asked questions and if there are pending amounts, it is also not a very good sign. We need to balance this,” a secretary in the ministry informed the Parliamentary panel recently. Left with no option, the ministry is sending representatives to states to collect utility certificates.