Minister assures to protect consumer rights

Vijayawada: Minister of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Nadendla Manohar inaugurating the additional district bench of Vijayawada Consumer Forum here on Monday assured to protect consumers’ rights.

Members of the Bezawada Bar Association and ex-officio secretary of Consumers Affairs and Civil Supplies Commissioner Saurabh Gaur were present.

Speaking to the media, the Minister said that action would be taken against the sale of low-quality goods to the consumers. He said that the additional bench would be helpful to clear backlog consumer cases in Vijayawada. Nearly 2,000 consumer cases are pending in Vijayawada and it is high time an additional bench was started here.

Nadendla said that about 1.33 lakh cases were filed in various district forums across the state. “For the first time a digital campaign would be launched in schools and colleges regarding the rights of consumers,” he said.

It may be recalled that the State Consumer Commission has proposed to shift some of the backlog consumer cases from Vijayawada to Krishna District Consumer Forum at Machilipatnam since there are a very small number of consumer cases there.

However, the Vijayawada advocates raised an objection to shift the cases to Machilipatnam which is expensive to consumers.

Ex-officio secretary for Consumer Affairs commissioner Saurabh Gaur took initiative following the advice of former Vijayawada Consumer Forum member PVVS Murthy and took a decision to introduce an additional bench in Vijayawada.

Saurabh Gaur, Additional Bench consumer forum president Ch Kishore, member K Sasikala, Bezawada Bar Association general secretary Arigala Sivaramaprasad, president K Chandramouli, AP Bar Council member Chalasani Ajay Kumar, former president Somu Krishna Murthy and others participated.