A new catch phrase for the consumer

bangalore: consumer rights forums, the world over are celebrating international consumer rights day on friday (march 15). for the people of karnataka, it's time to revolutionise and a resounding, ``show us the solutions'' may just become every consumer's new catch phrase. this year's consumer rights theme is `consumer right to representation'. the theme entails features like the need to raise the profile of consumer rights, to build the capacity of members in campaigning and advocacy and to secure practical advances to consumer involvement in policy setting at national, regional and global levels.``contrary to yesteryears, the mood of consumer rights forums and consumers themselves is very different. everyone is seeing through lofty policies. the consumer clearly wants to see the solutions and not the high-sounding, rarely kept promises,'' says grahak shakti managing trustee somasekhar v.k. the need for consumers this year is recognition and representation in government consultation and decision making processes. the consumer is making his needs felt in every area and industry be it shopping, advertising, public and private consumer services. according to consumer care society, co-ordinator power and tariff sector, y.v aswathanarayana, the most pressing issue for consumers is to see transperency and accountability of all service providers. ``tariffs need to be regulated instead of getting higher every year. life saving drugs are priced very high. from a legal point of view for the consumer, section 27 has been suspended for karnataka but the point is to have speedier executions of cases,'' he adds. consumer right organisations are putting their need for state government involvement in consumer issues forward in the hope of receiving some concrete action. but the new age consumer is one that is becoming increasingly hard to fool. he is not concerned with the methods and his interest clearly lies in seeing results. angry consumers are also adding that forced marketing must be prevented and information about the product must be explicitly stated on every product. ``value for money is what i look for. lofty promises are sadly the rule of the day and until consumer groups take control of the situation, no major changes can or will take place,'' bis director dr ramesh basappa said. but for ttk prestige dgm, murlidhara h.s, it's fast delivery and customer service that really needs a face-lift. ``there is a wide gap between the claims made and the sort of delivery the consumer gets. quality and customer service are inter-related,'' he said. although consumer rights groups will be celebrating the day in their own ways, the bottomline is simple enough — show us the results and a lifestyle worthy of our taxes. are the authorities listenng?