Administrative Report of the Consumer Affairs Department for 2000-2002

 

The Consumer Affairs Department was set up by the State Government by Notification No.74-Home (Cons.) dated 26.6.1999 with the object of safeguarding the interests of consumers and to ameliorate consumer grievances under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The Minister-in-charge was Sri N.N. Dey, who was also in charge of the Agriculture Department. Dr. A. K. Chanda, IAS, Chairman of the Durgapur Thermal Power Project, took additional charge of this Department from 1.11.1999. He was assisted by Sri N. Waris, WBCS, Additional Director Agriculture (Admn.) who subsequently joined as Deputy Secretary, and Sri Sachin Chakrabarti as Section Officer. In 2001 officers who joined the Department were Sri N.K. Mandal, Sri Sachin Chakrabarti and Sri A.K. Bose, Assistant Secretaries, Sri P.K. Pal, WBCS and Sri P.G. Das, Deputy Secretaries, Sri K. K. Guha WBCS and Sri A.K. Ganai WBCS Joint Secretaries. The Department is now headed by a Principal Secretary (Sri P. Bhattacharya, IAS since 4.1.2002) assisted by four Joint Secretaries [Sri S. Chattopadhyay, Sri N. Waris, Sri C. Roychoudhury, Sri P. K. Pal], one Deputy Secretary (Sri P.G. Das) and three Assistant Secretaries (Sri N.K. Mandal, Sri A.K. Bose and Sri A.K. Maity). The present staff strength of the Department is shown in Annex – I.

The State Commission, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Fora, the Legal Metrology Organisation and the Consumer Affairs & Fair Business Practices Directorate are functioning under the administrative control of this Department.

I. Legal Metrology Organisation

Set up in 1959 under the administrative control of the Commerce & Industries Department, it was transferred to this new Department in June, 2000. The basic aim of this organisation is to protect the interest of consumers so far as weight, measure and packaging of any item sold is concerned and to earn non-tax revenue in the form of service charges, license fees, compounding charges etc. The set up of the LMO with officers and staff is given in Annex–II.

II. Consumer Affairs & Fair Business Practices Directorate

The CA&FBP Directorate was created by Notification No. 213-DCA dated 21.3.2001. It started functioning from 1.10.2001 with the absorption and transfer of various categories of employees belonging to the erstwhile Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Entry Tax.

Under the newly created Directorate, 3 Divisional Offices and 25 Regional Offices have been set up in Kolkata, all the districts and some important sub-divisions. The divisional level offices, known as “Regional Centre for Consumer Education & Fair Business Practices”, are located at Kolkata, Chinsurah and Siliguri. The district and sub-divisional offices are known as Regional Office of CA&FBP. The total strength of officers and staff is shown in AnnexIII.

  

III. Consumer Disputes Redressal Fora

In order to provide redressal to the grievances of the consumers under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the State Commission in Kolkata, one District Forum in every district and two in Kolkata have been set up. Each Forum consists of three Members: one judicial member being the President and two non-judicial members of whom one is a lady. The District Forum deals with cases up to Rs. 5 lacs. Cases more than Rs. 5lacs and up to Rs. 20 lacs are dealt with by the State Commission. The details about the State Commission and District Fora are given in Annex – IV.