Centre launches ‘right to repair’ e-portal for consumers

New Delhi: On the occasion of National Consumer Day, the Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal launched new initiatives aimed to protect consumer interest including a right to repair e-portal and NTH mobile app along with National Consumer Helpline Centre in national capital.

At the e-portal the manufacturers will share the manual of product details with customers so that they can either repair by self or by third parties, rather than depending on original manufacturers.

Initially, mobile phones, electronic, consumer durables, automobile and farming equipment will be covered among the service provided by the portal.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between Consumer Affairs Department and IIT (BHU), Varanasi as well launched a capacity building programme of Consumer Commissions.

Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) President R K Agrawal were also present at the event.

While speaking on "Effective disposal of cases in consumer commission", the minister praised consumer commissions for disposing of higher number of pending cases in last six months and expressed confidence of eliminating the backlog of cases across the country.

About 38,000 pending cases were disposed of by consumer courts in the year-ago period.

Goyal said there will be ramp up in the disposal of pending cases and elimination of the backlog in the days to come.

He emphasised that 3T's - Technology, Training and Transparency will help towards achieving greater consumer awareness and greater service to our consumers.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said the department held a special drive 'Lok Adalat' and 'Grahak Madhyastata Samadhan' to settle the pending cases and such initiatives will be continued in future.

-With inputs from PTI