Noman Mosharef :
The Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection (DNCRP) is continuing its activities with shortage of manpower. The organization started its journey in 2009 under the ministry of commerce. The organization is also facing manpower shortage from the beginning. It has no power to make law.
Considering all kind of limitations, the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection has asked the people to protect their rights, say the experts. The organization is only light house of 16 crore people to protect their consumer rights.
The Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection has already applied for recruitment of 2,305 officials. Of these, public administration has approved 206 officials at the initial stage. This number is insignificant and insufficient compared with the need, said the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection officials.
According to Commerce Ministry sources, the government has enacted a law to protect consumer rights. The organization is working to protect consumer rights and interests under the provisions of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009. However, due to lack of institutional capacity for law enforcement, the mass people are not getting the benefits from this organization.
It is known that the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection has only 208 officials to protect the rights of more than 16 crore consumers in the country. The number of manpower working in the field is 108. Not only that, only five officials are engaged in protecting the interests of at least 20 million consumers in the capital. Among them, there is one director general, one director and three deputy directors. There is currently a vacancy between the two positions of director. Besides, there are three people working against the post of four deputy directors.
According to The Consumers’ Right Protection Act, 2009 article 76(1),”Any person, who is generally a consumer or likely to be consumer, may submit a written complaint to the Director General or any person empowered by the Director General against any anti-consumer right practice under this act”.
However, due to lack of necessary manpower, it is not going to be supervised and if applicable, punishment and fines are not going to be ensured. Hundreds of complaints remain unresolved.
It is known that the festival of adulteration and fraud is going on in most of the products and services in the country. In fact, almost all products ranging from fish-meat, milk-eggs and fruits in the market as well as in the service sector are being deceived in various processes including a mixture of harmful chemicals and adulterants. Unscrupulous people are selling fake and adulterated food including rice, fish, vegetables, spices, milk, yoghurt, sweets, bakery products on the one hand, intoxicated with the greed of making more profit; On the other hand, they are resorting to fraud in providing various services. At the same time, they are making more profit by creating misery for the people by creating artificial crisis of products.
Over the issue, The Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection Director General (DG) Bablu Kumar Shaha said proposals have been submitted to the Ministry of Public Administration with the approval of the Ministry for the required manpower. Subject to receiving the budget, the Ministry of Public Administration is approving the manpower.
He said, I am working with various limitations. Through this we are working to ensure the rights of ordinary consumers. Regarding the allegations lodged with the department, he said, “We are dealing with them with limited manpower.”
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said, “We are working to protect the interests of consumers through the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection.” The effort is on. The officials of the department are working with various limitations. This will not be a problem. These problems will be solved in phases.
