Consumer complaint hotline

In Bangladesh, we often see violations of consumer rights. Some breaches include sale of goods, medicines or services at a price higher than the fixed rate; sale of adulterated and counterfeit goods; sale of date-expired medicine and food; food processed under unhygienic conditions and tampering with weights and changing or removing price tags. Sometimes, through illegal syndicates, businessmen make super-profit by creating artificial crisis in the retail market during the occasions like holy Ramadan and the Eids. Consequently, consumers face numerous challenges to meet their needs.
Consumers in our country are not aware of their rights. If a consumer gets cheated, it is usually accepted as somrthing fated. So, we need to make all our consumers aware of their rights. The more consumers become aware, the more traders will refrain from cheating them. To this end, the introduction of a hotline service by the Directorate of National Consumers Right Protection to safeguard consumers' interest is a very timely and welcome step. This will help consumers lodge complaints easily and comfortably. If any consumer right is violated, the aggrieved person can now complain by dialling the hotline number, 16121. Though a laudable initiative, it won't work if our consumers are not aware of it or fail to make proper use of it. So, we urge the authorities concerned to popularise the hotline service by launching a number of promotional campaigns.

Anta Islam Mim,
Student of North South University, Dhaka,
anta.mim@northsouth.edu