State Consumers Affairs dept to use Puja to spread awareness

Kolkata: The state Consumer Affairs department has decided to use the platform of Durga Puja to make common people aware about protection of consumers' rights.

According to a senior official of the state Consumer Affairs department, lakhs of people visit the popular Puja mandaps. So there could be no better platform than Durga Puja to take steps to reach the maximum number of people.

The department is collaborating with different Puja organisers in the city where the turn out remains maximum to take up programmes to create awareness among the mass.

Usually, there used to be huge screens installed in popular Puja mandaps in which different clippings are shown to make pandal-hoppers aware about the protection of consumers' rights.

The department receives complaints round the year in which common people raise different types of allegations after they get cheated after buying a good or a service.

The department also receives several complaints from people after they got cheated in real estate sector or in the health sector.

At the same time, posters will be put up near different Puja mandaps so that it attracts the notice of common people and they get to know what they must check before buying a product or a service so that they do not get cheated.

The posters are being designed in such a way that one can easily understand that what they must do as a well aware consumers.

The officer said creating awareness is the most effective way to reduce cases of people getting cheated. There is also plan to carry out awareness campaigns at important intersections in the city during the Puja so that people come across it even if they do not visit a Puja mandap.

It may be recalled that the department has also decided to provide assistance to 840 schools across the state in this financial year which was around 400 in the last fiscal to form Consumer Clubs comprising students and headed by the headmaster or assistant headmaster of the school. The amount of financial assistance has also been doubled to each of the club.