HYDERABAD: Here is good news for consumers. The Legal Metrology Department, in a bid to curb unfair trade practices all over the State and to develop public interface, is proposing to launch a 24-hour consumer helpline and a website.

The consumer helpline number 1860 - 425 - 3333 and the website www.apcolm.gov.in will be launched on June 11 and people can register their complaints round-the-clock.

Four special call centres have also been set up in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Anantapur and Hyderabad to register complaints online from the respective jurisdictions, according to Legal Metrology Controller Tejdeep Kaur Menon.

Unfair trade practices have become the order of the day with every establishment, beginning from departmental stores to exclusive showrooms to petrol bunks not being exception.

Action against vendors

"Once a complaint is lodged, the respective Assistant Controllers will be alerted to take action against the vendors," she says. An acknowledgement number will also be given to the consumer and later the action taken against the vendor will also be intimated to the customer.

"Even if the complaint lodged does not concern our department and if it comes under the Civil Supplies Department or any other, then the respective department will be alerted both over phone and in writing," she says.

Employees and officers in the ranks of Junior Assistants of the Department have also undergone training programme under the aegis of EMRI to handle calls and register them online.

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