---------------------------------------------------------- ***** CHRISTMAS PARTIES 2002 *****
Dec 21 - GOA-LA, Los Angeles, +1 (714) 821-6168 Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a free party announcement Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goa-Net/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goanet2003/ ---------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Documented by Goa Desc Documentation Service & circulated by Goa Civic & Consumer Action Network (GOA CAN)<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Ph:2252660 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Civil Supplies Avatar ----------------------------- The Department of Civil Supplies and Price Control should have logically been wound up. It's been long since it has become redundant. Historically, its principal function was to oversee the Public Distribution System (PDS), which is now virtually dead. Since the amount of subsidy was drastically reduced, the difference between prices in the fair price shops and the open market has virtually vanished. There are not too many people in Goa living below the poverty line (BPL) who benefit from the scheme. If people continue to apply for ration cards it is solely because it is still considered by several government departments or even financial institutions as the only proof of residence. This notwithstanding repeated clarifications from the government to the contrary. In the era of liberalisation and globalisation price control has also become irrelevant. The last bastion of price control petroleum has also given way. With the prices of petroleum products now linked to international crude prices, the Civil Supply Department is not needed. The department is a hangover from the bad, old, wicked days of license and permit control raj. It's historical role was to ration goods in short supply and monitor the prices. The need for ration has disappeared as by and large there is no scarcity of the goods of mass consumption. In the free market model, price control is an anarchism. The control mechanism have been dismantled except in a few areas like essential drugs. In any case drugs have always been the domain of the Food and Drugs administration and not the Civil Supplies Department. But presumably the department cannot be wound up as it would lead to the displacement of a large number of people. Besides, if the whole concept of ration cards are done away with, scores of petty babus will have no outlet for their sadistic impulses. In government anyway, no department is even closed or wound up. Many of the relics of the permit license raj have been renamed. Except that the hope that they will be converted from regulators to facilitators has not quite been realised. This is because it is virtually impossible to change the mind set of the bureaucracy. So we are not really surprised that the Department of Civil Supplies has been re christened as the Department of Consumer Affairs. In its new avatar, the department is expected to educate consumers of their rights which we think is presumptuous for any government department to do. The most user unfriendly provider of services is the government. Historically, the Civil Supplies Department has not distinguished itself for the kind of service it has provided to its consumers. All those underprivileged people have had to run from pillar to post, first to acquire a ration card and subsequently to secure the essential commodities that possession of a card was supposed to guarantee. Similarly, the various other government departments which supply power or preside over water supply have always been citizen unfriendly. It has been the bitter experience of the citizens that very little value for money is provided by either government department or public sector corporations. The general attitude of the government employee has always been one of condescension if not surely resentment. When is the last time you have received a polite response to a query or complaint about your water supply or power or telecom bills or breakdown or interruptions in these services. Every department like the Industries Department or the Tourism Department expected to be facilitators invariably behave in a rude and oppressive manner. So there is certainly a need for a department to protect the interests of consumer. But whether those who have been involved in rationing ration cards and the supply of essential commodities are the right people to do it is a moot point. It is not as though the consumer is not aware of his rights, on the contrary the consumer is only too painfully conscious of the deficiency in service. The problems is not to get these grievances redressed. There are of course the consumer courts. But it takes a long time to get redressal in a consumer court. And consumer courts can do nothing above rudeness and the crude behaviour of petty clerks and even senior bureaucrats in the State. Unless of course the government plans to send civil supplies persons for retraining and reorientation. --------------------------------------------------- Editorial in HERALD 16/12/02 page 6 --------------------------------------------------- ======================================= GOA DESC RESOURCE CENTRE Documentation + Education + Solidarity 11 Liberty Apts., Feira Alta, Mapusa, Goa 403 507 Tel: 2252660 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.goadesc.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Working On Issues Of Development & Democracy ======================================= ======================================================================== Ongoing: Exhibition of paintings, Art Chamber, Calangute www.goa-art.com Dec 14 onwards: Shireen Mody's Goa 2002 exhibition, Arpora. Tel 2276759 Dec 17, 18, 20: Indo-Portuguese furniture, lectures Fundacao Ph 2230728 Jan 18-19: International kite carnival at Morgim beach, Pernem ========================================================================
