Details on Consumer Welfare Fund

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 had set in motion a consumer movement in the country. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 which came into effect from 20^th July 2020, and replaces the Consumer Protection Act of 1986 would give greater fillip to the ongoing consumer movement in the country.The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 provides for establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class.  The Act provides for  simplifying the consumer dispute adjudication process in the Consumer Commissions, which include, among others, empowerment of the State and District Commissions to review their own Orders, enabling a consumer to file complaints electronically and file complaints in Consumer Commissions that have jurisdiction over the place of his residence, video conferencing for hearing and deemed admissibility of complaints if the question of admissibility is not decided within the specified period of 21 days. To simplify the adjudication process, mediation, as an Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanism, has been provided in the new Act. The Act introduces the concept of product liability and brings within its scope the product manufacturer, the product service provider and the product seller, for any claim for compensation.

To protect the interests of the consumers, the Govt. has launched the “Jago Grahak Jago” campaign through electronic and print media for consumer awareness and joint awareness campaigns on consumer rights and responsibilities in key sectors – Health, Food, Financial Services and other Departments for greater consumer awareness. The Government has set up a National Consumer Helpline and to cater to the needs of consumers, regional languages, six Zonal Consumer Helplines have also been set up at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Jaipur, Guwahati & Patna.

The Consumers have been able to redress their grievances/ complaints against any defect in goods purchased or deficiencies in any services availed including any unfair/restrictive trade practices adopted, through specialized quasi-judicial agencies, now commonly known as ‘consumer commissions’, that have been established at the District level (District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission), State level (State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission) and National level (National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission). These consumer commissions have been mandated by the law to render simple, inexpensive and speedy adjudication of consumer complaints. The details of cases filed and disposed of by the Consumer Commissions in the last three years 2017, 2018, 2019 and current year is as follows-

NATIONAL CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

2017		2018		2019		2020 (till 13.09.2020)
Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed
10807	5883	8992	6379	7800	6530	2327	2486

 

STATE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

	2017		2018		2019		2020 (till 13.09.2020)
Name of the State	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed
Andhra Pradesh	571	466	738	362	539	647	76	254
A & N Islands	4	6	2	5	8	1	2	0
Arunachal Pradesh	4	2	11	0	3	4	0	0
Assam	119	16	127	36	72	39	12	13
Bihar	295	96	164	37	87	2	26	0
Chandigarh	1236	1191	887	997	646	591	252	130
Chattisgarh	1096	1137	1190	1163	1090	1044	325	438
D & N Haveli / Daman &Diu	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Delhi	2965	2175	2357	1745	1864	1858	329	457
Goa	238	165	194	139	129	188	32	25
Gujarat	1046	1189	1297	1219	1143	1289	494	381
Haryana	2620	1425	2236	1189	1624	717	520	154
Himachal Pradesh	414	276	459	339	536	419	155	142
Jammu & Kashmir	54	29	71	9	25	18	0	0
Jharkhand	353	56	332	43	139	42	36	12
Karnataka	586	0	14	0	1142	9	753	5
Kerala	1185	418	990	587	616	587	190	177
Lakshadweep	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Madhya Pradesh	2520	576	829	1141	2831	2145	800	606
Maharashtra	3485	932	2546	1382	2829	1694	774	243
Manipur	11	14	14	6	10	5	4	0
Meghalaya	5	2	3	1	0	0	0	0
Mizoram	8	0	11	6	3	1	2	0
Nagaland	0	0	10	2	5	6	0	0
Orissa	960	254	700	123	542	146	182	237
Pondicherry	41	31	17	26	7	1	6	1
Punjab	2072	2491	1817	2024	1874	1689	500	703
Rajasthan	1678	2153	1355	1746	1651	1720	496	532
Sikkim	4	4	5	3	7	8	0	3
Tamilnadu	562	334	559	287	514	280	99	504
Telangana	918	1029	1029	663	1100	560	616	173
Tripura	68	80	47	54	52	51	12	21
Uttar Pradesh	3096	3809	2904	2544	1984	1881	490	339
Uttarakhand	212	294	331	289	508	155	138	10
West Bengal	2641	2164	2140	2692	2088	2080	515	455
Total	31067	22814	25387	20859	25668	19877	7836	6015

 

 

DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

Name of the State	2017		2018		2019		2020 (till 13.09.2020)
	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed	Filed	Disposed
Andhra Pradesh	1761	2205	1935	1791	1974	1289	494	204
A & N Islands	32	28	24	40	34	27	14	9
Arunachal Pradesh	14	19	26	10	27	4	0	0
Assam	452	423	406	382	354	192	131	62
Bihar	2408	479	3015	1403	3236	1732	826	367
Chandigarh	1845	2053	1424	1573	2346	1972	776	532
Chattisgarh	3218	2497	4531	3505	4248	4126	1604	1438
D & N Haveli / Daman & Diu	8	4	8	1	3	2	0	0
Delhi	5261	4026	4362	4727	4255	4103	1016	835
Goa	190	444	169	180	182	189	78	61
Gujarat	7739	6682	8222	6267	11545	6755	4843	2588
Haryana	7671	10048	7509	7255	11352	7947	5138	1862
Himachal Pradesh	1464	1591	1411	1523	1491	1697	274	262
Jammu & Kashmir	421	100	413	314	189	127	0	0
Jharkhand	1199	646	1222	627	945	294	232	32
Karnataka	8061	9500	8909	8533	8887	8126	3193	2487
Kerala	5317	5234	4729	4596	4937	2862	2148	1095
Lakshadweep	4	3	0	2	0	0	0	0
Madhya Pradesh	10560	7530	8312	4013	11935	10019	5357	2746
Maharashtra	12268	13714	14964	12279	16691	13752	6083	3795
Manipur	26	30	18	18	25	12	2	8
Meghalaya	51	26	48	26	39	33	7	1
Mizoram	55	30	67	33	49	18	11	47
Nagaland	10	0	12	0	11	0	0	0
Orissa	3360	2538	2934	2167	3367	1390	1559	567
Pondicherry	59	57	41	54	54	0	15	0
Punjab	7913	6684	8524	6097	9667	7376	4475	1751
Rajasthan	14998	14356	10681	11295	9813	11509	5012	2559
Sikkim	17	13	25	19	27	21	1	2
Tamilnadu	2729	2231	2826	3040	3107	2596	867	414
Telangana	1769	1604	2173	1887	2258	2238	777	1197
Tripura	182	183	109	134	149	121	66	31
Uttar Pradesh	16580	9839	16844	10485	17982	7716	5754	1576
Uttarakhand	1058	774	1172	1253	1356	1891	823	677
West Bengal	5442	5447	5088	4523	5512	4361	1588	900
Total	124142	111038	122153	100052	138047	104497	53164	28105

 

The Consumer Welfare Fund was created in 1992 with the objective of providing financial assistance to promote and protect the welfare of the consumers, create consumer awareness and strengthen consumer movement in the country. Financial assistance is provided to Voluntary Consumer Organisations / Institutions for undertaking consumer advocacy / awareness and to State Government / Union Territories for setting up State Consumer Welfare Fund. The details of funds provided to States / UTs for strengthening the consumer movement during each of the last three years and the current year, State / UT-wise is as follows-

GRANTS RELEASED TO STATE GOVERNMENTS UNDER CONSUMER WELFARE FUND

 

Financial Year 2017-18

S. No.	State / UT	Amount Released
1.	Jharkhand	Rs  313.47 Lakh
2.	Nagaland	Rs    60.00 Lakh
3.	Telangana	Rs  479.00 Lakh
	Total	Rs  852.47 Lakh

 

Financial Year 2018-19

S. No.	State / UT	Amount Released
1.	Andhra Pradesh	Rs  133.92 Lakh
2.	Jharkhand	Rs    36.53 Lakh
3.	Rajasthan	Rs  750.00 Lakh
4.	Telangana	Rs      0.08 Lakh
	Total	Rs  920.53 Lakh

 

Financial Year 2019-20

S. No.	State / UT	Amount Released
1.	Andhra Pradesh	Rs     48.64 Lakh
2.	Mizoram	Rs   180.00 Lakh
3.	Sikkim	Rs   450.00 Lakh
4.	West Bengal	Rs   750.00 Lakh
	Total	Rs 1428.64 Lakh

 

Financial Year 2020-21: Nil

This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Danve Rao saheb Dadarao in Lok Sabha today.