Lacuna In The Helmet Law

A few days ago I was going on my two-wheeler on Kalidasa road and all of a sudden, the helmet flew off from the head of the rider in front of me and almost hit me. If it had hit me, I would have, in all probability, lost control of my vehicle and crashed.

City Bus Services to Improve Soon, Assures KSRTC

Mysore Grahakara Parishat, taking note of the importance  of city bus services to the city made an exception by conducting its Monthly Public Meeting on this issue for the second time within a span of ten months. Introducing the topic president stated that an efficient and economical public transport system of a city  is a precondition of its economic growth. A failed public transport results in unwieldy growth of traffic due to dependence on private transport vehicles. The public participated in large number and KSRTC was represented by Sri.Dundu Madaiah, DTO, and  Sri.Maqsood Ahmed, Manager of City Depot-1.

A Welcome Decision by the Consumer Forum

In a welcome decision (given on 14-11-14 in Case No. Ex.Cri.30-2011), Mysore District Consumer Forum has sentenced a person to three years in prison for providing deficient service and ignoring the orders of the Forum. He is in jail now.

It is well-known that consumer courts provide compensation for defective goods and deficient service. If the seller of the goods/services does not obey the orders of the court, consumer courts have the power to punish him with a prison sentence of upto three years and a fine of upto 10,000 Rs. Unfortunately, consumer courts are reluctant to enforce these punishments and so violation of the orders of the consumer courts is quite common.

Cutting of Roadside Trees

Many avenue trees in Mysore are too old or diseased and pose a threat to life and property. Mysore City Corporation and the Forest Department are not being prompt in identifying and removing such trees.

Is This Building Legal?

A 5-storey commercial building is coming up on a residential site at the circle opposite V.V. Puram Police Station . This building is in violation of Mysore City Corporation building bylaws and will pose serious problems to pedestrians and vehicular traffic. There are no setbacks and the cellar which should be used for parking according to bylaws will evidently be not used for parking since no access has been provided (Even if access can be provided, it will violate 1:10 slope mandated by law).

E-commerce Posing A Stiff Challenge To Retail Commerce

MGP held a public meeting on e-commerce on Sunday. Mr. R. Sateesh, Promoter, Yellow Pages was the main speaker. He explained the transformation that has taken place in the means of communication between person to person and its impact on the way people do commerce. The advent of mobile and internet has brought fundamental transformations in this sphere and the e-Commerce is an automatic off-shoot of this transformation. He explained the changes in the technological and economic parameters which have resulted in such a transformation and the emergence of very strong social media the world over.

Another black mark on Mysore Master Plan

It has been reported in the media that there is not enough room in the Attarah Kacheri building which houses the DC's Office and other offices and efforts to locate a site suitable for constructing a latger building have failed.

Till recently, extensive discussions were being held about the Mysore Master Plan which was proposed by MUDA in 2012. Since DC is the highest government official in the district, many of these discussions must have taken place in the DC's Office. Did the lack of space not occur to anyone then? Because, there is no mention of it in the Master Plan.

Is There No Escape From Road Blocking?

A group of people blocked Bengaluru-Mysuru road on Sunday night (26-10-14) because some accident had occurred on that road. The road blocking which happened late at night must have severely inconvenienced innumerable travellers, especially elderly people, children and ladies.

MGP’s Monthly Public Meeting Discusses Dasara 2014

MGP’s monthly public meeting provided an opportunity to the participants to share their personal experiences of recently concluded Dasara. There was a feeling that this Dasara was high on publicity and claims and not so high on the basics. Even though it was claimed that around 6 lakh people witnessed Dasara no toilet facilities were made available all along the route. So much so, a member who has worked as Traffic Warden during the Dasara procession shared his experience of the participants in the procession, particularly women participants searching for non existing mobile toilets . Their agony was writ large on their faces. And

MYMUL Officials Interact with Public

At a meeting on held ny Mysore Grahakara Parishat on 24-9-14 and chaired by R. Chandra Prakash, MGP President, Sri. Rajashekhara Murthy, Marketing Manager, MYMUL, interacted with the public about MYMUL products. Some of the important issues raised by the audience were: non-availability of 1-litre milk packets (and the resulting one rupee penalty on consumers who buy two half liter packets), difficulty          in

Bus travellers, register your complaints

Mysore Grahakara Parishat held a public meeting in several months ago in which officials of KSRTC promised that most of the problems raised at the meeting would soon be solved and that there would be a noticeable all-round improvement in the bus services by April 2014.

Railways terminate contract on traveller's complaint

I travelled in Gol Gumbaz Express from Mysore to Bijapur a couple of months ago. We were given bedding at Bengaluru, but it was both dirty and wet. I lodged a written complaint with the TT on the train, but was not sure that any action would be taken. When I received an SMS from the railways that my complaint had been closed, I thought that my fears were justified. But just on a hunch, I checked with the railways on the cause for the closure and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the bedroll contract for the train was terminated for deficiency in service, based on my complaint.

Photos from the Grahaka Patrike

MGP held a meeting at People's Park on 28-6-14 to protest encroachment of the park.

Several schools had brought their children to the protest. 

There was a classical music programme at the protest meeting

A Surprising Decision by the National Commission

In a recent decision (II (2014) CPJ 1 (NC)), the National Consumer Commission has ruled that if a person buys two apartments, he must be buying the second one for reselling, that would make the purchase a commercial activity and so if he has any problems with either of the apartments, he can not approach consumer courts. This is quite surprising because it limits the scope of the Consumer Protection Act significantly and is also against the intent of the parliament in enacting the Act.

In the case before the National Commission, one Sunil Gupta had booked two flats from a builder, one for his son and one for his daughter. There was a problem with the delivery of the apartments and Gupta approached the National Commission with a complaint of deficiency in service. The National Commission said that when a consumer has booked more than one unit of residential premises; it amounts to booking of such premises for investment/commercial purpose. Therefore, the Commission said, he was not a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act and his complaint was dismissed.

There are three problems with the National Commission decision. Firstly, it appears that the National Commission has chosen an anti-consumer stand in it order. It calls the statements made by Gupta “namby-pamby” without explanation. When the consumer has stated that the two apartments are for his son and daughter, the Commission seems to disbelieve him and assumes that the apartments have been bought to resell and make profit. The Supreme Court has said on numerous occasions (e.g. III (1993) CPJ 7 (SC)) that consumer courts must lean towards the consumer as much as possible. Consequently, the consumer's averments should be taken on face value unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Secondly, the decision of the National Commission to treat all investments as commercial is not correct. According to Black's law dictionary, an investment is an expenditure which provides revenue. So even a bank deposit is an investment because the interest on the deposit provides revenue. Deposits in post offices, shares, mutual funds are all investments because they all provide revenue. If all these are investments, then they are all “commercial” in nature and hence should be outside the purview of CPA. But the National Commission and the Supreme Court have given innumerable decisions in which these investments have been kept within the ambit of the CPA. Just because it is an investment does not make it “commercial”.

Thirdly, even if Gupta really had intended to resell the apartments, it still does not rule out the applicability of CPA. When the CPA was originally enacted, it permitted any person (or company or society) who had availed of a service to file a complaint before consumer courts if the service was deficient. It was soon discovered that under this provision, large companies were filing complaints which was defeating the very purpose of the Act, which was to provide quick and inexpensive justice to ordinary consumers. So the Act was amended to exclude services availed for a commercial purpose. It is clear that the parliament wanted to exclude only commercial activity on a large scale from the purview of CPA. This is acknowledged in a Supreme Court judgement (II (1995) CPJ 1 (SC)) . The Supreme Court order also quoted the Concise Oxford Dictionary which defines commercial as “pertaining to commerce” and commerce as “financial transactions especially buying and selling of merchandise, on a large scale”. Thus it is obvious that individual consumers are not excluded from consumer courts even when they use the goods or services purchased to make profit. The intent of the law is to exclude only large companies from misusing the consumer court mechanism.

The surprising thing is, the National Commission in the past has almost consistently taken the position that only individuals who purchase goods with the intention of carrying on any activity on a large scale for the purpose of earning a profit are excluded from the purview of CPA. This fact was noted in the Supreme Court judgement. The present decision of the National Commission is contrary to its earlier positions. The lower consumer courts are sure to be confused by this development. It is likely that the consumers will feel the resultant negative effects.

Christopher Mwangovya

Photos from the Grahaka Patrike

 (B.Vaikunth Shenoy) 

Prof.A. Ramalingam and a team of experts (Dr. Rathi Rao, Prof. Shankar Bhat and Prof. Keshav Nireshwalia) visiting Vijayanagar Central Water Storage Reservoir when ots roof collapsed 

(N.S. Lakshminarayana) 

Prof. A. Ramalingam and C.V. Nagaraj of MGP in the environmental summer camp for school children.

( B.Basavaraju) 

Prof. A. Ramalingam distributing "I Will Not Sell Adulterated Tea" display board to a shop owner. Others in the photo, Dr.M.S. Vishweshwara of Bharat Cancer Hospital (3rd from left), Uma Shenoi and Prof. Kalachanne Gowda of MGP (4th and 5th from left) 

MGP's monthly meeting on 11-5-14 focussed on water problems. From left, Bhamy Shenoy and R.Chandra Prakash of MGP, Yoganand and Nandiswar of JUSCO. 

An Important Judgement on Internet Deals

When you buy a product or service from a company located in say, Mumbai, through the internet and there is a defect in the product or deficiency in the service, do you have to file a case before the consumer forum in Mumbai or can you file it before the forum in Mysore? You can file the case before the Mysore forum itself, says a recent judgement from Meghalaya State Consumer Commission (click here).

In the case before the Meghalaya State Commission, an elderly person residing in Shillong booked a flight from Delhi to Jaipur from Deccan Airlines whose head office is in Bengaluru. The booking was done on the internet and the fare paid through credit card. When the person and his wife undertook the journey, the luggage was lost and the they had to undergo a lot of difficulties. 

The consumer filed a case before the District Consumer Forum, Shillong claiming deficiency in service by the airline. The airline objected that the forum did not have territorial jurisdiction to hear the case since, the airline office was in Bengaluru and the flight for which money had been paid was between Delhi and Jaipur. According to Sec. 11 of the Consumer Protection Act, a case can be filed only before the consumer forum of the place in which the opposite party resides or conducts business or the place in which the cause of action arises. The airline argued that the Shillong Forum does not have jurisdiction on any of these counts and that the case could have been filed only in Bengaluru, Delhi or Jaipur. But the forum dismissed this objection saying that the fare (paid through credit card) had been debited at the Shillong branch of Vijaya Bank and so the Shillong forum had territorial jurisdiction to hear the case. It then proceeded to hear the case and awarded a compensation of Rs. 72,000 to the consumer. 

The airline then went in appeal before the Meghalaya State Consumer Commission. It again argued that the forum had no territorial jurisdiction to hear the complaint. So the Commission considered the issue carefully and gave a detailed judgement about the territorial jurisdiction of consumer courts in internet disputes.

The Commission noted that the Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 1986 when internet commerce was not in vogue and so it does not expressly consider issues such as territorial jurisdiction of consumer courts in internet commerce disputes. It said that the territorial jurisdiction of the forum of the place where the cause of action arises is very important in such disputes. 

The Supreme Court has held (AIR 1989 SC 1239) that in contract disputes, a case can be filed in the court in whose territorial jurisdiction, acceptance to the contract was communicated. Courts have routinely held that when an airline issues a ticket to a consumer, the airline and the customer are entering into a contract. So the purchase of a ticket from Air Deccan (which is the source of the present dispute) was equivalent to entering a contract with the airline. In the present case, the contract was entered into and was accepted by sending e-mails. Again according to Sec 11(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, an  e-mail  is deemed to be dispatched at the sender's place and received at the addressee's place. Combining all the above, the Commission said that the contract to purchase the airline ticket was accepted at the place of the customer and so he can file the case before his local consumer forum. 

This well-argued judgement is very useful to internet purchasers. Since it allows them to approach their local consumer fora, getting compensation for defective goods becomes much easier.

Dwarkanath Narayan

What Is The Point Of This PA System?

The Traffic Police have installed a loudspeaker on Sayyaji Rao Road next to Ayurveda College. Instructions to motorists are being broadcast non-stop on this loudspeaker which faces the circle.

The question is, with all the traffic noise in this busy circle, can anyone hear what is being said on the loudspeaker? Even if the drivers can hear what is being said, will they pay attention to it or to negotiating the heavy traffic without getting into an accident? 

As it is, the circle is very noisy with horns blaring from dozens of vehicles at any given time. Why are the police increasing the noise pollution with this loudspeaker when there is no tangible benefit? Since the loudspeaker is directed towards the public library, users of the library are also being disturbed by this additional noise.

Vishwas Krishna

MGP Writes to MP on Railway Problems

Mysore Grahakara Parishat has written to the new MP Pratap Simha about the problems faced by railway users in Mysore. A summary of the letter is as follows:

To,

Pratap Simha,

We would like to draw your attention to very sorry state of affairs of South Western Railway services at Mysore. SWR has set up a committee called Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee to resolve problems faced by the public but it has been of little use. The problems range from exploitative and inadequate parking lots, very unscientific and commuter unfriendly platforms, inadequate trains and dilapidated rakes to total lack of cleanliness in the compartments, unauthorized vendors on the trains peddling unhealthy and overpriced food items, beggars on the trains, unauthorised occupation of reserved seats, gambling in the compartments and eve teasing and the list is very long.

Mysore Grahakara Parishat has provided a common platform for the citizens and the concerned government departments to meet and solve consumer problems. We have organized such meetings for road transport, traffic, water supply, telephony and electricity supply just to name a few. Top officials from these departments have come to our meetings and interacted with the public. But, top officials of SWR either refuse to meet us or participate, or agree to participate and abstain at the last moment with some excuse or the other. Such behaviour indicates that they have no real desire to solve the problems and improve the situation.

We would like to impress upon you the fact that Mysore has not received the attention it deserves on railway issues. Bengaluru-Mysore line doubling and electrification have been limping along for years. Linkage with Satyamangalam-Coimbatore is in limbo. We only hope that you will try to find solution to these issues now that we have our own Railway Minister at the Centre.

MGP would like to meet you and and discuss the problems of the railway commuters of Mysore. We request you to give us a suitable time for such a meeting.

Chandraprakash, President

Campaign to Save the Lung Spaces of Mysore

Dargah in Park

 Temple Park

Debris Dumping in People Park

Mysore is no more a garden city. Instead, it is becoming a concrete jungle. On paper, we have more than 600 parks in the city. But only 120 of them have been developed and can be recognized as parks. Since the land occupied by the parks is extremely valuable real estate, there is tremendous pressure to encroach. The best example of such encroaching is People's Park where one can find a PU college, a tennis club, a temple (See photo) and a dargah (See photo). The authorities seem blind to the progressive encroachment of the park. The park is also being used by the authorities to dump debris (See photo). The government's plan for building a library in People's Park has not fructified only because there is a case pending before the High Court.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly given judgements to prevent the encroachment of parks. The law allows only a structure of less than 30 square meters (323 sq.ft.) in a park and that too for watchmen's quarters. Despite these legal restrictions, our parks are being systematically decimated. The citizens are being forced to protest repeatedly and vigorously to prevent the destruction of parks in the city and to preserve our lung spaces.

Two years ago, on 24-6-2012, Mysore Grahakara Parishat, Mysore Youth Forum, Parisara Samrakshana Samithi and other NGOs held a "teach-in" at People's Park to reflect on how our parks are disappearing, how losing lung space is harmful, and what people can do about it. To continue exerting pressure on the local government, the state government and the elected representatives to stop all encroachments of the park, MGP is again holding a silent protest at People's Park between 10 AM and 12 AM on Saturday, 28-6-14. Some schools will be bringing their students as a practical class in the park to teach them on the need to save parks and on the citizens' responsibility to get involved to solve civic problems in a democracy. Those interested to get more information on saving the park are requested to contact MGP at 2515150 or 9845142770 or 8861096205

Bhamy V. Shenoy and Prof R. Chandra Prakash

Yadavagiri Footpath Destroyed

The Yadavagiri-Bamboo Bazaar Road (Brahmarshi Narayana Guru Road) is part of the Inner Ring Road even though it is quite narrow. The vehicle density on the road is quite high. There are signs which say that heavy vehicles are prohibited, but this restriction is not being enforced. In addition, the road is quite steep and it is a miracle that accidents do not happen more often on this road.

There are no footpaths on the road except on one side of the short stretch in front of Sunanda School. This makes the plight of pedestrians pitiable. Especially since children going to 4-5 schools use the road and there are 3 hostels including one for blind students.

Now someone has dumped debris on the only useful footpath on this road rendering it unusable (See photo). Since some effort has been made to spread the debris, it is possible that MCC itself has dumped the debris here.

Whoever has dumped the debris must have a sadistic bent of mind because they have destroyed the last vestige of a useful footpath on this road. Now God help the children and the blind students.

Dwarkanath Narayan

Sad State of Roads in Mysore

What is obvious in 99% of the roads in Mysore is that the road has no camber (arched surface) and is lower than the shoulders. As a result, rainwater falling not just on the road, but also the shoulders is forced to flow on the road surface itself. This goes against the fundamental principle of road construction which aims at keeping water off the road surface since water is the primary enemy of asphalt. The extra cost involved in giving the road the proper camber and lowering the shoulders can be more than recovered in the increased lifetime of the road. So the Mysore City Corporation and MUDA and PWD should include road camber and trimming of shoulders also in their specifications list.

Added to this, MCC is not cleaning the side drains properly. As a result, the problem of rainwater flowing on the road itself has become even more acute.

C. V. Sreeroopa

Make Tailgating Illegal

Media have reported about an accident which occurred on the Bangalore-Mysore highway on 17-5-14, in which several cars ran into each other. It appears that the cars were travelling close to each other and when the first vehicle applied the brakes, this multiple-car accident occurred.

Driving too close to the car in front (also known as "tailgating") is a major cause of road accidents worldwide. Many western countries have laws against such dangerous driving practice (See for example). In most of these countries, you are expected to leave at least 2 seconds distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you. Violations of this rule are punishable as dangerous driving. But in India, dangerous driving (Secs. 183-184 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988) does not include tailgating.

Many accidents in the city are caused by tailgating, but since the speeds are low, the only damage caused is a dent in the vehicles. But on highways, tailgating poses a serious danger to life and limb. It is imperative that tailgating must also be brought within the ambit of dangerous driving.

Vishwas

Scrap The Property Tax Calculator on MCC Website

Like many other government departments, Mysore City Corporation too has a website. It has a property tax calculator which is supposed to calculate the property tax on your property when you provide it with the details of your property. We find it so user-unfriendly and inaccurate that it is virtually useless. Here are some its problems.

1. A main ingredient of the property tax calculation is the cost of the land. For determining the cost of the land, the city has been divided into hundreds of divisions and the market value of a square foot of land in each of these divisions has been fixed by the district registrar. When you feed the location of your property, the calculator refers to this table of land values and determines the cost of the land.

But the trouble is, it is almost impossible to feed the location of your property to the calculator. The way it is set up, you first feed the ward number and the calculator gives the option of 3-4 blocks. You choose the right block and the calculator shows you all the streets that are in that ward and block and you pick the correct street. This should fix the division into which your property falls.

But the software has mixed up wards, blocks and streets and as a result, if you enter your ward number, the calculator will not display your street name in any of the blocks. Even if you check all ward numbers and all block numbers you might not find your street, because the street names are given as just 2nd Cross or 3rd Main and you can not be sure if it is 3rd Main, V.V. Puram or 3rd Main, Gokulam. To find the land value for my home which is on 6th Cross, V.V.Puram, Ward No. 32, I have to select Ward No. 38, Block No. 2 and 2nd Main which is nowhere near my real address! This I found out after calling the computer section of MCC.

2. In the present property tax system, the value of the property is the value of the building plus the cost of the land covered by the building (the cost of the land around the building is excluded). In the calculator, the cost of the land under each floor is included separately inflating the cost of the land. So the calculator comes out with a much higher figure than the correct amount of property tax.

3. The calculator does several things which it does not explain and so one is left with the uncomfortable impression that it is increasing your tax liability. Some examples are:
i) When it adds the tax on the land and the tax on the building, the sum is 15% higher than it should be. No explanation is given.
ii) According to the calculator, the cost of construction per sq.ft. of an RCC-marble-teak building is Rs. 340 if it is the ground floor, but Rs. 540 if it is on the first floor! Similarly, the cost of construction per sq.ft. of an RCC-mosaic-teak building is Rs. 580 if it is the ground floor, but Rs. 520 if it is on the first floor. Such mistakes make all the calculations suspect.

4. All the text on the calculator is in English while all the dropdown menus are in Kannada! So you need to know both languages to run it. Why MCC is not offering calculators purely in Kannada and purely in English is not known.

5. The calculator (and in fact all MCC records of properties) measures property dimensions in feet. It is amazing that even after 50 years of banning the British units of measurement and adopting metric units, MCC is still not using metres as units! The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1956 made the metre the official unit of length in India. The government and the public were given a grace period of 6 years to convert to the metric system. After 1-4-1962, it is illegal to use non-metric units such as feet. In fact, Sec. 80 of the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 (which replaced the 1956 Act) mandates that non-metric measures should not even be stated in any enactment, notification, rule or order of the government.

6.The calculator can only calculates tax for the current year. People who have not paid last year's tax can not use the calculator since it does not give a printout of last year's tax.

On the whole, the calculator seems very badly designed with no supervision. It appears quite unreliable. MGP had raised many of these issues with MCC three years ago. But MCC has done nothing. If one examines the calculator carefully, it is certain that many more problems will surface. It is better if MCC shuts the calculator off.

Prof. B.S. Shankara

Better Safety System Needed

We had heavy rains the night of 4-5-14 and when I woke up the next morning, I found that the voltage was very low. I called the complaints number of Chamundeshwari Electric Supply Corporation and was told that repair was going on and that normal power supply would resume in 15-20 minutes. But even after 40 minutes, the problem persisted. So I sent an SMS to the concerned engineer after which the power was shut off completely.

This incident highlights the fact that the system does not function as it should. The assertion by the staff that repair work was going on even when the power supply was not completely shut off is shocking to say the least. Four CESC linemen have been killed by electrocution in the last year, the most recent one being a few days ago when the person who was electrocuted was not a lineman at all, but a worker sent up by the lineman. The point is, what is the system for ensuring that there is no voltage on the line before a lineman climbs the pole to attend to a defect?

Till recently, I was a member of the Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum of CESC and when I asked the engineering staff regarding the electrocution deaths of linemen, I was told that linemen are provided with an instrument that detects voltage on the line from below, and they should not climb the pole without using the instrument. This explanation implied that linemen who were electrocuted did not take the necessary precaution. But I could not get an definite statement about a foolproof system which ensures that when the lineman checks that the power is switched off and climbs a pole for repairs, somebody at the switchboard or the transformer does not switch the line on by mistake.

I have personal experience in operating and maintaining an electricity supply system. In the system I was working with, when the time came for line repair, the power was switched off and the key to the substation gate was taken by the line party, and when the defect was repaired, the line party would return and open the substation with the key. This guaranteed that there was no accidental switching on of power when the repair was going on. Some such system is needed here too.

Maj.Gen.(Rtd.) S.G. Vombatkere

Photos from the Grahaka Patrike

(JSS Pharmacy College) 

C.V. Nagaraj of MGP recently conducted a demo of detecting food adulteration at the JSS Pharmacy College NSS Camp at Kalmahalli.

 (Rotary West) 

R. Chandra Prakash, MGP president spoke recently to Rotary West on the consumer movement 

Phone Problems: G.O. Nullifies Supreme Court Order!

Till 2009, telephone problems (defective billing, illegal charging for song downloads, illegal disconnection, etc.) could be taken to consumer courts and justice obtained quickly and inexpensively.  The National Consumer Commission's website makes this explicit: "The provisions of this (Consumer Protection) Act cover 'goods' as well as 'services'....The services are in the nature of transport, telephone, electricity, housing, banking, insurance, medical treatment, etc." But in a decision that shocked the consumers, the Supreme Court bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Ashok Kumar Ganguly ruled on 1-9-2009 (III (2009) CPJ 71(SC)) that consumer courts can not decide disputes relating to telephones. As a consequence of this ruling, almost all consumer courts  started rejecting complaints against deficiency in service by telephone companies. But now, in another surprise, the Government has issued an order to all consumer courts saying that despite the decision of the Supreme Court, consumer courts can take up disputes concerning phone service. In effect, the G.O. overrules the Supreme Court order!

 The Department of Telecommunications has issued a letter to the Department of Consumer Affairs on 24-1-14 (available at the website) asking it to issue letters to all the District Consumer Fora and State Consumer Commissions in the country stating that the Supreme Court order does not apply and that consumer courts are competent to try consumer telephone disputes. Mysore Grahakara Parishat checked with the Karnataka State Consumer Commission and learnt that it had received the letter from the Department of Consumer Affairs and forwarded it to all the district consumer fora in the state. So now, all the consumer courts should be accepting complaints against service deficiency of telecom companies. 

But it is shocking that the government is overruling an order of the Supreme Court through a letter to the consumer courts. In the constitutional setup of India, if the executive does not agree with a decision of the judiciary, it has just two options:appealing the decision or proposing a change in the law and getting it approved by the legislature. If the government thinks that the order of the Supreme Court in the matter of telephone disputes is faulty, it should file a petition and have the order overturned by a larger bench of the Supreme Court. In fact, the DoT letter mentions that the government of West Bengal wanted DoT to file such a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court, but DoT turned the request down. If governments start overturning court orders through executive orders, the Constitution itself will be subverted and there will be anarchy.

What makes things even worse is that while there are several excellent reasons  to reverse the Supreme Court order, the reason given in the DoT letter is feeble. The Supreme Court ruling relied on a provision of the Indian Telegraph Act which said that disputes concerning services provided or authorized by the telephone authority have to be decided only by an arbitrator (and hence not by consumer courts). The DoT letter argues that since 2000 when BSNL was hived off, DoT (which is the "telephone authority") does not provide any telecom services and all consumer disputes are with the service providers such as BSNL, Vodafone, Reliance, Tata Telecom, etc. and so the provision of the Telegraph Act relied by the Supreme Court does not apply. This argument is strictly not valid since the Telegraph Act says that even disputes related to services authorized by the "telephone authority" are outside the purview of consumer courts.  Since the telecom services provided by the service providers are also authorized by DoT, one can not say that the Telegraph Act does not apply.

From the consumer point of view, the Supreme Court order should be overturned as it it denies telephone consumers a simple and inexpensive means of solving their problems. But overturning it through a letter to consumer courts is unconstitutional. It is imperative that DoT immediately files an SLP before the Supreme Court to reverse its decision.

Dwarkanath Narayan

Which is worse, the problem or the solution?

About five years ago, on the advice of an "international expert", many pedestrian road crossings in Mysore were converted into road humps. These humps, constructed at enormous expense are about 9" high and topped with interlocking tiles. From the beginning, it was clear that these humps created more problems than solved:

Why Is Tippu Express Frequently Late?

Tippu Express runs both ways between Bangalore and Mysore. It is a superfast train and hence the charges are more, Rs. 70 as against Rs. 55 for other Express trains and Rs. 22 for passenger trains.

Problems With Computerizing Consumer Courts

Information pertaining to various courts in India is being digitized and put on the internet so that it can be retrieved by anyone sitting at home. The consumer court system is no exception. The judgments given by all the district consumer fora, state consumer commissions and the national consumer commission are required to be put on the website confonet.nic.in. The exercise is being done to help consumers, advocates and even consumer courts to find out whether issues interesting to them have come before any consumer court and what decision was given.

Photos from the Grahaka Patrike

(B.V. Shenoy) 
MGP's monthly meeting on 9-2-14 focussed on Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer of LPG subsidy

MGP's Meet on Solar Electricity

Most of India suffers from power shortage. To address this issue, the Central Government is promoting unconventional energy sources, notably, solar power. It has given approval to 31 cities across India for development as Solar cities and Mysore is one of them. Solar cities are required to promote solar energy to reduce the demand for conventional energy by at least 10 per cent.

Results of "The Smart Citizen Quiz" competition

To celebrate its Silver Jubilee, Mysore Grahakara Parishat, in collaboration with Mahajana Consumer Forum, Mahajana First Grade College, Mysore recently conducted "The Smart Citizen Quiz" for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Mysore. The quiz focussed on the knowledge needed to become a responsible citizen, such as issues related to Consumer Protection, Environment, Traffic and Safety, Anti-Corruption, Social Evils, RTI. etc.

A Welcome Decision By The National Commission

In a recent decision (I(2014) CPJ 6(NC)), the National Consumer Commission has said that consumer courts are bound to give "speaking orders" in their decisions. They should carry out a detailed analysis of the facts on record and then give cogent and convincing reasons for arriving at their conclusion. From the consumer viewpoint, this decision is quite welcome.

Heritage Building Needs Maintenance

The General Post Office building and the two buildings adjacent to it were built during the time of the Maharajas and have historical importance. The building which houses Lashkar Police Station is one of them. It is included in the list of 198 heritage buildings of Mysore identified by MUDA in its Master Plan - 2031.

District Forum Dismisses Contempt Case Against MGP

In a recent decision (18-1-14), the Mysore District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum dismissed a contempt of court case filed against Mysore Grahakara Parishat. The case was filed by Dr. S.P. Thirumala Rao. The judgment is available here. It is of interest that the case was filed by the leader of one consumer organization against another consumer organization.

Lack of Redressal Mechanism Causing Hardship to LPG Consumer

Mysore Grahakara Parishat held its monthly public meeting on 9-2-14 and discussed problems confronted by the LPG consumers. Mysore district is one of the 54 districts all across the country which were chosen to launch a pilot programme for Aadhaar card based direct benefit transfer (DBT) for LPG consumers, because Aadhaar enrolment in Mysore is very high. When the other districts in the country are getting LPG at a subsidized prices, consumers in Mysore district (and the other 53 chosen districts) are charged the market price on delivery and the subsidy amount is directly credited to their bank accounts. The objective of this scheme is to weed out bogus beneficiaries and to thus plug the leakage of the subsidy.

Photos from the Grahaka Patrike

(B.V. Shenoy) 
MGP's monthly meeting on 12-1-14 focussed on traffic problems.

Making Lalit Mahal Road A Part of NH-212 Is Not Wise

Mysore today-

Mysore, Karnataka's second city, is known for its built heritage, lakes and avenue trees. It is a growing city with a vehicle population of about 8 lakhs, increasing at the rate of about 35,000 vehicles being added to the city roads every year. (That's about 100 vehicles every day!). The rapidly growing problem of traffic congestion within Mysore City is causing concern to Mysore's civic authorities because citizens are raising the connected issues of road accidents affecting pedestrians and vehicles, vehicle exhaust pollution, vehicle noise, and shortage of road space and parking space. Road widening to facilitate motor vehicle movement results in reduction of foot-path width, further increasing risk for pedestrians. It also involves removal of mature avenue shade trees, reducing their natural air-cleaning capacity.

Our Civic Bodies Are Becoming Jacks of All Trades and Masters of None

The MUDA Governing Council recently approved a Rs. 437 Crore action plan. Part of the plan is installing statues in various circles of Mysore. Also included are developing various circles, cycle paths, bus bays, parks, etc.  This raises some important questions: 

Task Force for Tackling Mysore Traffic Woes

Mysore Grahakara Parishat's January monthly meeting held on 12-1-14 focussed on traffic woes of Mysore. Dr. M.A.Saleem, Commissioner of Police, Ms.Asha Bharath, Assistant Director of Town Planning, MCC, Sri. Ramakrishna Iyengar, ARTO and Sri. Maqsood Ahmed, Divisional Traffic Officer, KSRTC participated.

Mr.Maqsood Ahmed explained that inappropriate and faulty location of bus shelters by the MCC results in huge problems for the KSRTC. Public mistakenly believes that these bus shelters are put up by the KSRTC. Secondly the location of Autorickshaw stands very close to these bus shelters, of location of footpath vendors in or around them cause immense problems both for the drivers and the travelling public.

Ms.Asha Bharat explained that MCC is simply an executing agency as for as bus shelters are concerned which are selected by the peoples’ representatives like Corporators and the MLAs and some-times on public demand. On faulty meters of the Autorickshaws Sri.Ramakrishna explained that this aspect is not within the domain of RTO but is the responsibility of Weights and Measures Department. He further explained that the operating of Kerala registered Autorickshaws in the city is not illegal but are permitted as per the provisions of the MV Act.

Dr.Saleem lucidly explained that the difference between Traffic Regulation, which is the domain of Police Dept, and Traffic Management, which is the product of policies and rules of agencies such as MCC, RTO and others. This fine demarcation is not made known to the public. He made it clear that Police has very restricted role of Traffic Regulation. Enforcement of helmet rules is one of these regulations. He explained that police department in Mysore is implementing extensive use of the modern technology in executing its duties.

Closed Circuit cameras linked to control room is now helping in checking and penalising traffic violations. He made a mention of Traffic Task Force in Bengaluru which has radically reduced the death due to traffic accidents apart from disciplining the drivers. Even though there is no such Traffic Task Force in Mysore the concerned government departments such as RTO, MCC and KSRTC and the Police are having informal coordination meetings to thrash out there inter-departmental issues. He assured the participants that very soon the Police Department will enforce the rules which prohibit use of Cell Phones while driving and the use of seat belts. However, he mentioned that he found a very casual attitude of the public at large when it comes to traffic rules. He surmised this being more an outcome of lack of civic discipline than an regulation or enforcement lacunae.

Public placed before the representatives their individual and societal traffic problems and sought their solution. Lack of interdepartmental coordination was brought to the forefront during the discussion. Therefore, it was the opinion of the participants that formation of Traffic Task Force in Mysore, on the lines of Bengaluru, would help better coordination among the concerned departments of the government in tackling the traffic problems of the city.

R Chandra Prakash, MGP

Photos from the Grahaka Patrike

(B.V. Shenoy) 
MGP held a press conference init soffice on 5-12-13 to highlight the deficiencies in Mysore Master Plan - 2031. From left, R.Chandra Prakash (President of MGP), Ashok Kacker (Vice President of MGP), Dr. Bhamy V.Shenoy and K.R. Seshadri (Treasurer of MGP).

(B.V. Shenoy) 
MCC takes its own time cuting down dead trees which pose a danger to the public. But it has promptly cut down several healthy trees on Kalidasa Road for no obvious reason

(R.Chandra Prakash) 
MGP has been complaining about cleaning up Cheluvamba Park. MCC staff have finally cleaned up the park and now it looks beautiful. 

(R.Chandra Prakash) 
Another nice view of Cheluvamba Park. 

S.R.Subba Rao 
Noted engineer S.R. Subba Rao who was a member of MGP since 1990 passed away on 17-12-13. He was 90. 
Based on his experience with Bangalore Water Supply and Drainage Board, he was the first person to work out in detail the economics of water supply in Mysore. Unfortunately, VVWW never made use of his seminal work.