There are irregularities everywhere in the country and the government is unable to take action against the irregularities fearing a big crisis. The Directorate of National Consumers’ Rights Protection (DNCRP) has come up with the view recently. As much as the consumers are being deceived by the service providers or suppliers so long they do not understand that their rights are being curtailed. We observed that countrywide syndicates forced the government to push the price by making an artificial crisis in the market.
A news report of this newspaper on Friday said that people are not getting proper service from WASA, DESA, Titas, and several other service delivery public or private entities. Water quality is not good; gas pressure is low, frequent load shedding in the electricity supply. The biggest weakness of the consumers’ rights protection directorate is the lack of accurate information. It has no legal source of getting information. There is also no scope to scrutinise the information received from the individuals. In spite of this shortcoming, the directorate has been conducting different drives and finding out about illegal hoarding by traders.
Following this, the consumer rights protection laws need to be strengthened in line with sustaining the country’s development. The DNCRP needs to be empowered further with sufficient manpower and other logistic support. We observed that the nature of business is changing for economic progress in the country. So, the Consumer Rights Act needs to be amended and punishment for violators of the law should be made more severe.
What is the duty of a government in the modern state? Undeniably, the government enables accessible basic services to smoothen citizens’ life. We do believe our government is not an exception. Protecting citizens from the pinch of price hikes, the authority should take political and administrative steps. Over the years’ social and economic development should not be backfiring and we do not want to fall apart like Sri Lanka.
