New Executive Committe For MGP

D.V. Dayanand Sagar, Secretary, Mysore Grahakara Parishat  (PRESS release)

The following were elected unopposed to the Executive Committee of Mysore Grahakara Parishat at its 21st Annual General Body Meeting held on 25-9-10:  P.M. Bhat,  R.Narayana,  Sreemathi Hariprasad,  V. Mahesh,  S. Sobana,  M. Jayaram,  D.V. Dayanand Sagar. These committee members met after the General Body Meeting and coopted  Asha Vombatkere to the Executive Committee.  The new office bearers of MGP were elected at this meeting:

Sreemathi Hariprasad (President),
V. Mahesh (Working President),
D.V. Dayanand Sagar (Secretary) and  R. Narayana (Treasurer).

Peace Petition

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Supreme Court Keeps Examination Boards Outside The Purview Of The Consumer Protection Act

During the 1990s, the Supreme Court gave several judgments which interpreted the Consumer Protection Act (and other consumer-related acts) liberally and greatly expanded the ambit of the Consumer Courts. This trend followed the Supreme Court observation "The provisions of the (Consumer Protection) Act have to be construed in favour of the consumer to achieve the purpose of the enactment as it is a social benefit oriented legislation" in the historic Lucknow Development Authority Vs. M.K. Gupta case (III(1993) CPJ 7 (SC)).

But now the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way and in several decisions, the apex court has reversed the earlier pro-consumer decisions given by itself and has even struck down pro-consumer provisions of the law. In a recent decision, it has removed examination boards from the ambit of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). So if the examination board loses the answer sheet of a student or for any other reason fails to publish his results, and he loses a year in the bargain, he can not now get compensation for the lost year. In fact, he now has no legal recourse at all against any acts of negligence by the examination boards.

In Bihar School Examination Board Vs. Suresh Prasad Sinha (IV (2009) CPJ 34 (SC)), the Supreme Court has held that examination boards are statutory bodies which do not offer any "service" to the candidates and the examination fees paid by the student is not a consideration for availment of service, but charge paid for the "privilege of participation in examination". The order of the Supreme Court overturns the order of the Patna District Forum (which had been upheld by the Bihar State Consumer Commission and the National Consumer Commission).

B.Vaikunth Shenoy, member, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

What Is Happening With KRS Road?

KRS Road, one of the main roads of Mysore, has been closed for traffic from Tharaasu circle to Dasappa circle for more than five months now. Despite the dislocation of all the northern bus routes and the tremendous hardship caused to the road users, there has been very little in the way of protests from the public.

Most people in Mysore are not aware of what exactly is going on and why there is so much delay in reopening the road. Here is what we have found.

The Railways are building a new bridge for the Nanjangud line. To accommodate this bridge, KRS road had to be lowered. But there were water mains running just below the existing road and they had to be lowered too. The water mains were just one foot below the road surface and the pressure of the road traffic above caused them to leak significantly. To solve this problem, the mains will be several feet below the new road surface to insulate them from the effects of road traffic. The lowering of the water mains and the road surface are the works that are going on now.

Now the cause for the delay. When they were in the process of lowering the water mains, they found one more main which were not prepared for. It is shocking that MCC did not know how many water mains there were below the road. These are not some half inch water pipes which could be laid by some unscrupulous customer without MCC knowing about it, but huge water mains which supply water to thousands of people. It is mind-boggling that MCC could not know about the existence of such a main.

Anyway, the surprise finding of an extra main has upset all the plans of MCC and is causinng the delay. But since the Dasara is almost upon us, and KRS road is a very important road, the pipe work is being suspended and the road filled up and brought to its original state . The road will again be dug up after the Dasara and the work completed. Needless to say, the filling and re-digging will cost cost a lot of extra money.

It is surprising that modern management techniques like Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM) are not being employed by MCC to manage any of its projects. These techiniques are used worldwide to cut costs and time.

Then there is the question of fixing the responsibility of this bungling. Will MCC identify the people responsible and punish them for causing time and cost overruns and causing extreme hardship to the citizens of Mysore?

Dr.Bhamy V. Shenoy, Convenor, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

Problem Near Kamakshi Hospital

Lane delineators were placed near Kamakshi Hospital to mark the busbay. It probably was not a good idea from the beginning. The lane delineators are now crushed and the debris pose a problem both to bicycles and pedestrians crossing the road (See photo). Since there is no enforcement, vehicles are parked in the bus bay and so the buses now stop in the middle of the road itself, posing problems to other traffic. The concerned authorities should remove the lane delineator debris immediately and smoothen traffic flow.

D.V. Dayanand Sagar, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

Violation of the RTI Act

Sec. 5(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 mandates that every public authority shall designate Public Information Officers (PIO) in all administrative units or offices under it to provide information to persons requesting for the information under this Act. According to Sec. 6(1) of the Act, a person, who desires to obtain any information under the Act should make a request in writing, along with the fee, to the designated PIO.

But some public authorities are misinterpreting this section of the law to make it difficult for the public to get the information they want. For example, Mysore City Corporation has appointed the assistant commissioners in charge of each of the 9 MCC zonal offices as PIOs, but has not appointed any PIO in the main MCC office. As a result, if a person wants information pertaining to MCC as a whole (such as the number of property owners in Mysore who have paid their property tax), he has to file 9 applications to the 9 PIOs. To do it, he has to go to the 9 zonal offices spread all over the city and spend 10 Rs. for each of those applications. He then has to add the numbers given by the 9 offices to get the information he wants. If getting information becomes so difficult, no one will ever make use of the RTI Act and the fundamental reason for establishing the act is lost.

There are some types of information such as births and deaths which are held only by the MCC main office. There is no PIO who handles applications requesting such information.

Therefore, we urge the Commissioner of MCC to designate a PIO for MCC main office so as to not defeat the intention of the RTI Act.

 Vishwas Krishna, member, MGP

Brigade Developers Pays Rs. 1 Lakh To Settle Case On Overcharging

Brigade Developers, a builder of apartment buildings, has paid P.M.Bhat and K.W.Bopaiah Rs. 1 lakh each to settle cases which they had filed against excessive fees collected from them.

The complainants had bought apartments constructed by Brigade Developers. Before handing over the apartments to them, Brigade Developers had collected from them large amounts for various services ( including more than Rs. 25,000 as electricity connection charge, more than Rs. 15,000 as water connection charge and Rs. 10,000 as Corporation Khatha assessment charge). The complainants later found out that the authorities did not charge anywhere close to the huge amounts collected by the builder. In fact, Mysore City Corporation did not charge anything for Khatha assessment. The complainants then wrote to the builder to render a true statement of accounts for the fees levied, but they received no reply. So they filed cases (OS Nos. 426/2002 and 47/2002) before the Court of Small Causes at Mysore claiming that in the absence of a true statement of accounts, they should get back the amounts they had paid as various fees. The case was referred to Lok Adalat in which the case was settled for Rs. 1 lakh each to the complainants (4-8-2010). The court fees paid by the complainants were also returned to them.

MGP has received complaints from apartment buyers that many apartment builders are charging exorbitant fees for services such as the ones mentioned above. They should ask for a statement of accounts and if the statement is found unsatisfactory, proceed to file a case for the recovery of the excess amount paid. MGP has also brought the case of excessive Khatha assessment fee to the notice of Mysore City Corporation and asked it to publish an advertisement in the public interest to give the correct picture on various fees it charges to builders.

B.Vaikunth Shenoy, Mysore Grahakara Parishat