CONSUMER CHARTER

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CONSUMER CHARTER CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION

• ASHOK PENDSE
• MUMBAI GRAHAK PANCHYAT

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ABOUT MGP

• Working for consumer protection for 33 years.
• Areas of work such as equipment complaints, gold,
  taxi-rickshaw tariffs, credit cards, cable
  network, telephone, etc.
• Source of revenue.
• Six Consumer complaint cells, Five judges of
  consumer courts.
• Working as consumer representative with MERC from
  its inspection i.e. August,1999.

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EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF CGRF OMBUDSMAN

• Easy accessibility regarding place, time
  geographical location.
• Awareness about its functions capability giving
  stay till dispute is resolved.
• Major complaints are in the area of average
  billing, excess billing stopped meter. Also new
  connections
• Monitoring of implementation of its orders.
• Appointment of members chairman at appropriate
  times.

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EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF CGRF OMBUDSMAN

• The number of complaints has stabilized in some
  cases reducing.
• It is necessary to educate semi-urban rural
  consumers by CGRF.

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CONSUMER EDUCATION PROTECTION 1st tier

• Protection education from tariff shock, routine
  complaints.
• 3 tiers of education
• 1st tier Capable of taking up issues of
  regulatory commission, appellate tribunal
  supreme court.
• The tariff is cost-plus hence, every item of
  expenditure needs to be analyzed. Some of the
  examples are as follows
• Cost of transportation of coal in respect of
  rail, sea road transport.
• Audited expenditure versus prudential
  expenditure.
• Manpower cost circle wise / utility wise
  comparison
• Benchmarking of power stations on capacity,
  vintage basis.

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CONSUMER EDUCATION PROTECTION 2nd tier

• Routine complaints in respect of bills, meters,
  etc.
• Complaints regarding new connections in respect
  of agricultural pumps.
• Also education regarding load shedding protocol.
• We have trained about around 250 consumer
  activist in 6 districts by conducting seminar.
• We are targeting about 200 more in 4 districts by
  April-09 end.

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CONSUMER EDUCATION PROTECTION 3rd tier

• Basically rural masses, This is in respect of
  agriculture connections.
• Rural electrification programme definition by
  poverty line.

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FINANCIAL AID

• High expenditure in case of tribunal supreme
  court.

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IDENTIFICATION OF PERSON

• For tier-1 person capable of appreciating
  engineering, commerce law required.
• For tier-2 mass communication programme required.

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THANK YOU.