kbsyed61 - 6 November, 2010 | Civic amenities | Civic amenities | Bangalore | Bangalore | consumer rights | Complaint | Courts | Living | Living

Given the choice, very few amongst the middle and upper classes in the country will ever want to have anything to do with the government or its agencies, plainly because they lack the basic 'technology' of handling them. But, fortunately or unfortunately, the government is omnipresent in our country, providing as it is all vital services like power/ water/ gas supplies, and railways/ bus transport services, etc, and, somewhere or the other, you'll necessarily have to cross its path, whether you like it or not. This has given birth to a flourishing 'middleman industry' across the country, with members from the highly respectable fraternity of CA's and lawyers at the upper end, to plain touts at the lower end, providing an array of services across the spectrum. But, all these come at a cost which the aam aadmi can ill afford.

Well, it is inevitable that, in the none too distant future, the government will be forced to give up many of its present functions as a service provider, and hand the jobs over to the private sector. In such a scenario, the government's role as the facilitator, regulator, watchdog, etc gain a lot more significance than has generally been accorded to it today. One such role is in the effective functioning of the Consumer Courts.

Decades back, when the Courts were first established, many of us have I tested out their efficacy with a couple of cases, and emerged fairly satisfied. Many among has attended the court personally, and generally found the procedures consumer friendly and fast. As more and more services switched to private players from government ones, the vast improvements in the service levels, given the keen competition between the players, lulled one into a sense of complacency, and we never bothered with the Consumer Court thereafter. But, wrong doings even in competitive situations are inevitable, and we have been faced with situations forcing us to approach the Consumer Forum to seek redressal.

Bason on some of the Praja member's personal experiences, here are some tips in pursuing Consumer Courts for the deficiency in service and value.

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