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Being socially aware Caveat emptor

Is the garbage on your street collected regularly? Do you get contaminated water from the Municipal water line? Do such issues bother you? Then read on, for you might want to know what Vijaya, a consumer activist, did instead of remaining a silent spectator.

A few months ago, Vijaya opened her kitchen tap to draw municipal water for cooking purposes. What came out was water that smelt like sewage water, clearly unfit for consumption. Realising the hazards of consuming such polluted water, she hastily ran to buy bottled water for cooking.

Since she ran her home on a tight budget, Vijaya found it difficult to manage this unexpected expenditure. With hope, she brought the issue to the notice of the municipal authorities, but they paid scant attention.

The same week, she found that garbage was not being collected regularly from households, and was accumulating on the streets. Once again, her representation was not given due consideration by the authorities. Vijaya was dissatisfied with inefficient approach of the civic bodies, which collected taxes for providing these services, and was determined to put an end to these deficiencies.

She organised a group of local residents to ensure that these statutory organisations functioned without deficiency. She later formed an association which spearheaded legal action against the deficient service. Since polluted water was life-threatening, the association attempted to resolve it on a priority basis. They approached a welfare organisation, which helped them place legal arguments with statistical proof, elucidating the health hazardous of polluted water.

Meanwhile, Vijaya came to know of a landmark decision of the Supreme Court that covered the functions performed for a consideration by civic bodies under the jurisdiction of the Consumer Protection Act.

Initially, her association’s rights were rejected by the National Commission on the ground that it could not be considered as a consumer complaint.

Nevertheless, the association appealed to the Supreme Court, which not only accepted their claims but also directed the authorities to ensure that safe drinking water was supplied to the residents.

The Supreme Court also emphasised that the authorities must conduct regular supervision and advised the association to approach the Consumer Fora for any aberration of these orders.

A confident Vijaya then took up the issue of garbage clearance in her area, which was carried out by a private agency on the Municipality’s behalf. Her arguments drew attention to the fact that the contractual amount paid to the private agency from the public corpus was sufficient for the issue to be covered under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act.

This was accepted by the Consumer Fora and both agencies were directed to provide good service to consumers. The objects of the Consumer Protection Act, which have all along used only to protect the consumers’ right to be informed about the quality, quantity and purity of goods provided by the private agencies, is now being extended to include water and other services provided by statutory agencies.

Contributions made by ardent activists such as Vijaya not only obviate future deficiencies in these basic services but also significantly demonstrate that the Consumer Fora are not for mere consumers, but for citizens at large!

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