State to organise Consumer Affairs Fair in Nov

Kolkata: In a bid to make commoners aware about their rights as consumers, the state government has decided to host a Consumer Affairs Fair in November.

The fair is going to be held for three days starting from November 24 at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

Sadhan Pande, the state Consumer Affairs minister, said: "The dates for the fair have been finalised and our discussions on other aspects of it is going on."

Since the change of guard in the state, the state Consumer Affairs department has taken several steps to ensure that consumers are not deprived of their rights and don't get unnecessarily harassed in any circumstances. The fair is a big programme that the department organises where people from different parts of the state come to get suggestions on different issues related to consumer affairs. It may be mentioned that the Consumer Affairs department had played a major role in making people aware about the risks of investing money in any chit fund schemes. The department organises seminars in the three-day long programme on related topics as per the need of the time. The seminars are major part of fair. It is open to all and people from all walks of life get an opportunity to listen to eminent speakers from different fields who talk about consumer rights and its protection. The topics on which there will be discussions are yet to be finalised and there will be a high-level meeting soon to discuss the same, said an official adding that the meeting will be held soon. A section of officials of all ranks will be present in the fair and they will give necessary suggestions to people to help them get justice if they have been deprived of their rights. Many people visit the fair to know where they should go to lodge their complaints.

Many come to the fair after being harassed for a long time, after being deprived of the rights by real estate developer to whom they gave their lands to develop multi-storeyed buildings. According to the official, it is expected that senior representatives of central banking institutions will be addressing the seminars.