Mumbai: For better control over prices of essential commodities, the Central government is planning to set up consumer affairs departments in all States. They will put in place a Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) in each State to ensure farmers get Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and availability of essential commodities at reasonable prices.
At present, these are facilitated by State government departments, while price assistance comes from the Centre. The Union Consumer Affairs Ministry’s price monitoring cell (PMC) collects data on prices of essential commodities through crowdsourcing and stakeholder participation.
A decision on this will taken during the National Consultation meet between the Union ministry and and State governments in New Delhi on June 29. These departments will collect information on essential commodities and update the Centre on local prices using a central system. State government officials said Maharashtra’s Action Taken Report (ATR) is ready for review at the national meet, where other States will be presenting their’s as well.
In a note to the State Chief Secretary, Avinash K. Srivastava, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, said the departments will also ensure implementation of the Essential Commodities and Legal Meterology Acts and protect consumer rights. The note said, “The last consultation was held in May, 2016, in which issues related to implementation of the law to check prices of essential commodities, and strategy to ensure their availability, were discussed. An action plan was also drawn up for follow-ups by the State government. This ensured prices were kept in check.As a result of the centre and state governments the rices of major commodities was kept in check.”
Consumer rights activist Jehangir B. Gai said, “Consumer forums are low on resources. Some have just one stenographer to draft notifications and documents, while appointments at the higher levels take are months. In such a scenario, how will a single ministry for consumer affairs help?”
