The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Call centre to redress ration card holders’ grievances

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Thursday, Mar 05, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Call centre to redress ration card holders’ grievances

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Food and Consumer Protection Department will set up a call centre, with a toll-free number, to redress the grievances of ration card holders, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Commissioner K. Rajaraman said on Tuesday.

The department has already formed a society for this purpose.

To be housed in the Commissioner’s office, the call centre will have four dedicated staff, who will work for eight hours a day for five days a week.

It will also offer online counselling and deal with grievances.

“Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is helping us set up the call centre. We were supposed to open the tender on March 6 to complete the formalities, but we are deferring it to May, pending completion of the Lok Sabha elections. Likewise, all works in the department have been deferred till May,” Mr. Rajaraman told The Hindu.

Delivering the valedictory address at a seminar on the ‘role of educational institutions in promoting consumer awareness through consumer clubs,’ organised by the School of Business and Club C, M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, he said the need of the hour was to set up consumer clubs in colleges and schools to create awareness of the fundamental rights of consumers.

“Human greed, ignorance of fundamental rights, silence of the educated minority and unsustainable consumption of essential things are the problems that plague society in general and the common man in particular. As a responsible citizen, we should put our foot down when things go wrong,” he said.

K. Shanmugam, Secretary, Co-operation, Food and Consumer Protection, said: “Though the habit of cheating is in us, as a consumer you should be aware of your duties and fundamental rights.” Students should question the wrong things and this would bring about a change.

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