By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State Government has expressed concern over the non-performance of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDC) due to the absence of a permanent president in the commission.
The SCDC has not received a single complaint till April this year due to its apparent non-functioning which has put the consumers in the State in a dilemma.
The SCDC, since its inception had attended to 259 complaints out of which 175 were disposed until Justice B Lamare retired on December 23, 2010. In 2011, there were two sittings with no judgment until 2012.
The State Government has been compelled to hike the honorarium for appointment of a permanent Judge from the Gauhati High Court to hold the post of president in the commission to make it functional.
The hike in the honorarium though is an added burden to the Government since one of the two members, Ramesh Bawri who is also holding charge as acting president has not been performing as desired which perhaps is one of the main reasons for the non-functioning of the commission.
While confirming about this hike in the honorarium, Principal Secretary in charge of Food and Civil Supplies, Peter Ingty said that they have given a proposal to the finance department to enhance the honorarium from Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 while seeking to consider the provision of a retired judge.
“We would like a retired judge to temporarily hold the post of president in the forum to make it at least functional,” Ingty said.
Endorsing the views of the Principal Secretary for the appointment of a retired judge as the president of the SCDC, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Prof RC Laloo said that there are provisions in the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 which allows the acting president to function as the president until the Government is able to locate a permanent president. He, however, evaded the query on why the acting president has not passed judgement on the cases being heard by him.
It may be recalled that the Leader of Opposition, Conrad Sangma even in the last Assembly session demanded immediate removal of the senior most member of the commission on question of “conflict of interest”. Posing the question Conrad had said, “I demand immediate removal of Ramesh Bawri as a member from the commission as being a businessman he cannot extend justice to the consumers because of his own interest as a businessman”.
Endorsing the same view, Paul Lyngdoh of UDP had said, “Why it is so that the gentleman in question is irreplaceable when he is appointed in 1999 and has attracted adverse reactions from the public”.