Consumer should be king, at least for the Department of Consumer Affairs. This year’s Consumer Day celebrations showed that it was hardly so. The event was organised at a swanky hotel in the capital city. Top officials of the department were present, along with a motley crowd of ration dealers, officers, and some local political worthies who have little to do with the consumer movement.
The celebrations took place in the luxurious environs of the hotel without the presence of even the chairman of the State Consumer Grievances Redressal Commission, an eminent jurist who had passed some landmark judgments that had broadened the scope of consumer rights. Representatives of many consumer rights organisations in the State too were absent. As one of them put it, they felt intimidated by the ambience of the luxury hotel, which did not suit the theme of the day.
Consumer grievance forums are pale shadows of their much-talked about powerful avatars in the early days of the consumer protection law. Perhaps, there is no wonder then that nobody really cared about the Consumer Day celebrations.
Whatever else he was to the Malayali eye, Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer, known simply as ‘Sir CP’ or just ‘CP’, was a legend of an administrator in his time.
He was a no-nonsense man when it came to administrative decisions and actions, something that even his most trenchant critics concede.
Times have changed and the mention of the once-feared name ‘Sir CP’ appears to have little effect on the multitude.
‘Sir CP’, in fact, had to beat a hasty retreat from the Kottayam municipal council office the other day. Not the legendary CP — he died long ago — but the crew of a film by that name, and the actor. For, confronting them were a bipartisan bunch of UDF and LDF councillors and an irate crowd.
As it often happens, the director had offered a minor role to one of the councillors whose support, many told him, was crucial if the space was to be converted into a film set.
As the shooting progressed, the entire municipal staff left their seats to get a glimpse of their favourite stars. Members of the public who arrived at the office, many of them to get their work done, were not allowed inside the campus for ‘security’ reasons.
Soon, three women councillors also conveyed to the director their desire for cameo parts.
The director, however, struck down their star dreams. What followed was a commotion with a bipartisan team of UDF and LDF councillors mobbing the crew aided by activists of some youth organisations.
As the situation seemed to go out of control, actor Jayaram, who plays the lead role, apologised to the politicos and the youth leaders for the inconvenience caused and the entire crew beat a hasty retreat from there. The film, insiders say, might still be shot there, but that will have to wait till election of a new municipal chairperson on Monday. ‘Sir CP’ is cooling his heels till then, the loss on account of a day’s lost shooting estimated at Rs. 3 lakh.
The State government’s directive to local self-government institutions to finish existing and spill-over projects before December 31 has left the heads of local bodies fuming. The ‘arbitrary’ decision, they say, is part of a deliberate attempt to make the annual allocations for various projects lapse, besides being a clear breach of the powers of the local bodies. The government has warned the local bodies that no spill-over project would be entertained after March 31, 2015, as the local body polls are due in September/October. This stiff deadline, local body leaders say, would be tough to comply with as majority of the local bodies have utilised only between 30 and 40 per cent of the allocated Plan funds so far. Where is the question of spending all the money devolved by the government when there is no prompt release of funds from the treasuries and local bodies do not have enough hands to do the job, ask the local body heads, but nobody in the State capital seems to be listening.
With inputs from N.J. Nair (Thiruvananthapuram), George Jacob (Kottayam), and Biju Govind (Kozhikode)
