The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan today reviewed the functioning of National Consumer Helpline (NCH), a flagship project of the Department of Consumer Affairs. Shri Paswan reviewed the working of the National and Zonal Consumer Helplines along with the Secretary, Consumer Affairs,Director IIPAand other senior officials. Shri Paswan also spoke with a consumer from Uttar Pradesh via the helpline and helped redress his complaint.Shri Ram Vilas Paswan expressed satisfaction that the helpline workforce has been expanded from 16 to 120 and training has been provided to them. He stated that NCH is providing an important service to consumers and it should be publicized and popularized to ensure that the common man knows of his rights and how to get them enforced. Shri Paswan suggested that Department should give adequate publicity to NCH through electronic, print and social media and success stories should be highlighted.
Shri Paswan stated that there should be convergence with various government departments & private sector for timely redressal of consumer complaints. He also suggested streamlining the feedback mechanism to assess the consumer satisfaction level after redressal of complaints which will also help in performance appraisal of the workforce. The Union Minister further suggested that Zonal Helplines should function from consumer friendly locations so as to make it more visible to consumers.It was also mentioned that the huge data that NCH has should be analysed and utilised advantageously for propagating social messages. Extensive use of social media to popularize government initiatives was also stressed upon by the Minister. A dedicated Twitter handle was also asked to be created where consumers could directly connect with NCH via social media.