Bengal gets honoured for being consumer-friendly state

Kolkata: West Bengal has bagged the prize for the best consumer friendly state from a national level body that has been floated by the central government.

A senior member of the body handed over the prize to state Consumer Affairs minister Sadhan Pande on Friday.

"They are impressed with the infrastructure that we have put up in connection with redressal of consumers' grievances. We have presently 26 consumer courts across the state and our case resolving rate is higher than many other states. We plan to spread wings

to subdivision also. But I am sorry to say that we are not getting funds from the Central government," Pande said.

The minister is optimistic that the new government that will be elected to power after the elections will surely give importance to consumer related issues.

Pande said the Centre has already accepted the state's recommendation of raising the compensation payment

slab of the lower courts from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore and that of the state commission from

Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore.

"We have set up a number of mediation cells in connection with consumer matters and a number of matters are now being settled even at this level," Pande said.

The minister expressed his concern over the fact that many big brand shops in

the city suffering loss in business.

"The online shopping portals are offering things at a lesser prize that the stores.

People

are going to shops to have a look at articles and then are ordering the same product online. I will raise this matter with the new government and suggest measures on how to address this issue. I am

preparing paper in this regard consulting legal experts," he added.

It is learnt that the national body had asked the minister to come to Delhi for accepting the prize but he could not make it because of some engagement. A team came and handed over the award to him at his office on Mirza Ghalib Street.