The National Consumer Day, an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity is celebrated on 24th December every year.

Chandigarh, December 24th:- The National Consumer Day, an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity is celebrated on 24th December every year. The National Consumer Day is an opportunity to aware public regarding their basic rights and responsibilities as Consumers. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 has now been replaced by Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Since the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 has been implemented w.e.f 20th July 2020, the Govt. of India proposed to celebrate the National Consumer Day with the theme: New Features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019. For the first time a chapter of mediation has been added in the Act, which will be an alternative dispute redressal mechanism. The definition of “consumer” has widened which now includes offline and online transactions. The proposal for set up of Central Consumer Protection Authority has been included and pecuniary jurisdiction of the District and State Commissions has been enhanced in the Act beside many other provisions.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the launch of E-filing services would be done on the occasion of National Consumer Day so that consumers can file their grievances online in Chandigarh State Commission and District Commission I & II. With the start of the e-filling system of complaint cases, the complainant can file his complaint online and need not physically visit the Consumer Court and the service can be availed on web portal i.e https://edaakhil.nic.in. Prior to this, Chandigarh Administration has also established Consumer mediation cell under the consumer protection Act, 2019 and became the first State/U.T in the country.
The Department of Food & Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Legal Metrology, U.T., Chandigarh in association with Consumers Association, Chandigarh is going to organize a webinar on new features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019 to aware consumer about their rights. An address on the key features of the Act, would be given by the President, State Commission Chandigarh on the occasion. The webinar would start at 10.30 am on 24.12.2020. The link for webinar conferencing is as follows:
(https://desktopvc.nic.in/flex.html?roomdirect.html&key=VpGu7b8kpM) PIN – 3322. All stakeholders are requested to participate in the launch ceremony through webinar.
Amongst the other schemes implemented by the department, during COVID-19 pandemic, as per directions of the Govt. of India, the department has successfully implemented the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) Scheme-I and distributed 3 months (April, May, June, 2020) foodgrains free of cost in one go. This scheme was further extended upto November, 2020 and the department had again distributed 5 months (July to November,2020) foodgrains free of cost in one go at the door step of the beneficiaries.
The Govt. of India, issued directions to distribute free food grains i.e. Wheat @ 5 kg. per person per month & Chana @ 1 kg. per family per month for two months (May & June, 2020) to the migrants/stranded migrant workers to help mitigate their plight during this precarious COVID-19 situation and to ensure availability of foodgrain to them. A quantity of 145.800 MTs of wheat and 7.056 MTs whole channa was distributed covering 3,528 migrant families (14,580 persons).
The Union Territory of Chandigarh launched One Nation, One Ration Card Scheme on 31.10.2020. For the registration under One Nation One Ration Card, the Migrant has to call on the helpline no.14445 or to visit the service window in the department to get register under the ONORC Scheme. In order to cover the migrant labour(s), the department has started awareness/orientation programme at the construction sites where there labour is working and the eligible labour has started to register under ONORC scheme. The migrant labor who wants to get enroll under ONORC are advised to visit the Food & Supplies Office Sector -17.