The Hindu : Centre favours `Consumer Clubs' in schools, colleges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 28, 2003

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National

Centre favours `Consumer Clubs' in schools, colleges

By A. Subramani

CHENNAI DEC. 27. With a view to giving a fillip to the consumer rights movement in the country, the Centre is keen on starting "Consumer Clubs" in schools and colleges in all States.

Disclosing this to , the Secretary of Consumer Affairs under the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Affairs, Navin B. Chawla, said the objective was to make the "Consumer Clubs" a national movement by March 15, the World Consumer Day.

To ensure a smooth and uninterrupted functioning of the scheme, all the State Governments have been requested to appoint a nodal officer to route the Central grants to the schools or organisations selected for the purpose.

The State Governments and the nodal officers shall be responsible for selecting the institutions or service forums, as the case may be, for the annual Central grant of Rs. 10,000.

As and when the utilisation certificates are submitted to the Centre by the nodal agencies, the grant for the next year will be released, according to Mr. Chawla, who has the distinction of being Mother Teresa's biographer.

Explaining the Centre's experience in Delhi where scores of consumer clubs have already come into existence in educational institutions, he said that on December 24, the National Consumer Day, 50 public schools and 57 schools run by the Delhi Government had participated in Centrally-sponsored programmes.

To start with, these institutions are highlighting only the very basic themes such as ISI (Indian Standards Institution) brand, the maximum retail price factor, product quality and the quantity-related malpractices.

"Between December 24 and March 15, we expect the movement to spread far and wide, covering all the States," Mr. Chawla said, adding that he would visit the North-East to ensure that it too contributed to the development of consumer rights and awareness movement.

Making it clear that the Centre would not try to substitute its own judgment to that of the States insofar as the strategy was concerned, Mr. Chawla said each State or school or college would be free to propagate the ideas most relevant to its region, in its own chosen manner.

"All that the States need to do is to give us a nodal point through which the Centre will funnel its funds," he said.

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