CONSUMER RIGHTS
Good services in short supply
Pushpa Girimaji

Lack of foresight, forward planning and preparedness: this has become the hallmark of governance in India. And it is the consumers who are the sufferers.

Look at our roads. Even though the government opened up the automobile and banking sectors to private and foreign banks, it failed to anticipate the rapid expansion this would bring about in the automobile market. In 1980, the total number of registered vehicles in the country was 5.2 million. Today, we produce twice that number of vehicles in a year.

In 2006, India’s auto industry produced 10.9 million vehicles. In the absence of corresponding development in the road sector, most of our roads are not only badly made and poorly lit but are also too small to take care of the increased traffic.

Consumers burn more fuel, waste more time travelling and also feel more tired and irritated. There are also more road accidents. By the time the administration wakes up to the need for bigger and better roads and builds them, the traffic would have increased even more.

The aviation sector is no different. In 1998-99, the country’s airports handled a total of 37 million (domestic and international) passengers. In 2004-05, the number of passengers went up to 60 million (domestic and international) and by 2010, the number is expected to cross 100 million. Here again, the sector was opened up without a corresponding upgradation and expansion of airports and airfields. So today at airports like Delhi, airlines are forced to hover over the airfields waiting for their turn to land. And who pays for the additional fuel that is burnt up in the process? The consumers. This, of course, is in addition to suffering the long delays in take-offs and landings as a result of air traffic congestion.

The situation is even more chaotic in winter. Despite the fact that this is a yearly phenomenon in the northern parts of the country, there is complete lack of preparedness to deal with the situation on the part of the regulator as well as the service providers. So there is a direct co-relation between the winter fog and the hardship suffered by the consumer. As the visibility decreases, suffering of the passengers increases.

Then there is also the risk factor or the safety issue. Unless safety infrastructure — such as communication devices, navigational aids, surface control radars, weather warning systems — keeps pace with the increasing air traffic, passengers can well be at risk. So also supervision over the increasing number of airlines, particularly in respect of the maintenance of their aircraft and the quality of their inspection.

Rail traffic is no different. Year after year, new trains are announced by railway ministers without bothering about the increasing burden on the railway infrastructure and safety. And one can see the consequences in the railways safety track record. The Parliamentary Standing Committee, in its 83^rd report presented to the Rajya Sabha had commented on this and observed: "The present system in the country is already overstressed and it is important to ensure that all infrastructure facilities cater to the safe running of additional trains with due safety margins. It is essential that such facilities are in position before adding the burden of additional trains." But who is listening?

One sees this absence of planning in the development of new townships too. Without assessing the electricity and water needs of the population or the impact on the environment, builders are allowed to construct multi-storeyed flats, corporate parks and even huge shopping malls indiscriminately. And then the consumers suffer the ill-effects — congested roads, water shortage, power cuts and even lack of fire safety. For example, Gurgaon in Haryana though is touted as a global business hub, it lacks adequate infrastructure.

These days consumer courts have even been zeroing in on those officials who are responsible for such negligence and directing them to pay damages from their personal funds. It is only such court verdicts that will wake up the administration to think ahead and think of consumers, particularly about their safety and welfare.

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