Terming Consumer Protection as top priority of Government, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today said that there will be no compromise on safeguarding Consumer Rights in the state and those found involved in unfair trade practices will be dealt sternly.The Minister was addressing representatives of Sarafa Association, Swaran Kar Sangh and functionaries of LMD and FCS&CA after inaugurating unique Gold purity testing machine (Karatmeter) here at the office of Legal Metrology Department (LMD), Transport Nagar Jammu. The state-of-art karatmeter costing Rs 20 lakh is an accurate, non-destructive tool for testing purity of gold.With the commissioning of Karatmeter at LMD, Jammu, J&K has become the second state after Kerela to have this unique facility for consumers who want to test the purity of gold they purchase from the market. The ornaments failing the test would also help LMD to identify the erring traders and take action against them under the law. “Government will not allow anybody to deceive the consumers and for that we have build a strong Consumer grievance redressal mechanism to address the issues of Consumers”, Minister said adding that the facility of Gold testing in the state has added more teeth to enforcement mechanism.He also urged upon Sarafa Association to cooperate with the government in identifying the jewelers who fleece gullible consumers by selling impure and fake gold ornaments. “Once you identify such people, Government will deal with them strictly as per law to save the people who fall in their trap” he asserted.Appreciating the accuracy of the machine after the demonstration test, the Minister hoped that it will greatly benefit the people in purchasing quality gold.
Meanwhile, Joint Controller, LMD Jammu informed that any customer can avail the facility and test the quality of his/her gold ornaments on any working day.Director Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Choudhary Rashid Azam Inquilabi, Joint Controller Legal Metrology Department V. S. Sambyal, Deputy Controller LMD Manoj Prabhakar, M A Mughal, President Chamber of Trader Federation Neeraj Anand, Patron Consumer Welfare Association Chander Gulati, Chairman Batra Group Devinder Batra, Patron Chamber of Trader Federation Yashpaul Gupta, Chairman Sarafa Association Raman Suri, President Sarafa Association Parjan Jain, General Secretary Swaran Kar Sangh Jammu province Ram Kapoor, other prominent persons from these Associations, besides various senior officers of Legal Metrology Department were present on the occasion.Later, the Minister inspected the construction work of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Directorate Office Building at Ware House Nehru Market Jammu.The Minister, while inspecting work on Rs. 10.33 crore RCC Framed Structure building, was informed that over Rs. 3 crore have been spent on execution of the building so far.Zulfkar directed J&K Housing Board- the executing agency to speed up the work and ensure completion of the 10000 sq ft Ground floor of the building within three months.