Mysore/Mysuru: Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP) shared the significance of World Consumer Rights Day on Mar. 15 as ‘Grahaka Devo Bhava’ along with the students and staff of Amrita School of Arts and Sciences, Mysuru.

On a platform to explain the various clauses of the Consumer Rights Act 1986 and 2019, for the benefit of the consumers, Dr. T.N. Manjunath, a senior member of MGP, who has come across several consumer grievance cases, explained the power of empowerment/ the right, to claim the i) right for the safety of the product, ii) right for information, iii) right for healthy environment, iv) right for consumer education, v) right for representation and vi) right for redressal and advised the audience to make the best use of it.

As the consumer movement is a worldwide phenomenon, every citizen should be aware of his own rights to have access to basic essential goods and services, adequate food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education and sanitation. Every customer should demand to alert the supplier about his duty to provide the right thing for the money he pays since the customer is the king, he noted.

Explaining about the mode of filing of complaints with the District Consumer Forum for deficiency in services/poor quality of products etc., he said that one needs to approach the District Forums directly with the complaint letter enclosing the bills of purchase as proof as a consumer and submit his/her case and seek damages for the loss incurred against the supplier.

Usually, the complaints are disposed of within a period of 90 days unless for certain specific reasons they get adjourned further. He also informed that the District Consumer Forum is a judicial platform with a judge and also a member of public as a semi-judicial member, and that one of the MGP’s members was also a nominated member in the recent past.

Speaking about the activities of MGP, Dr. Manjunath said that the MGP is an advisory body as NGO to make public as consumer activists and guide them on how to approach the District Consumer Forum for any of their consumer grievances.

In his concluding remarks, the speaker advised the audience to make the best use of the Consumer Act to claim their rights by way of damages and mental agony experienced.

The session also included a talk on the subject by Purushotham and Anuradha Purushotham, eminent advocates from Mysuru, who explained the various customer-friendly clauses of the Consumer Protection Act and advised the members to make the best use of them and become consumer activists. Dr. G. Ravindranath, Principal, Amrita School of Arts and Sciences, Sunayana, staff of the College, MGP President Dr. B.V. Shivamurthy, C.R. Ashwathnarayan, K.V. Ramanath and students and staff of the College were present.