Vacancies hit functioning of consumer fora

Vacancies continue to plague the functioning of district consumer disputes redress fora even three months after a new government assumed office in Tamil Nadu.

As on date, out of the 30 fora, 21 have become defunct as the posts of president and member remain vacant, resulting in delay in the disposal of cases.

Official sources say the situation in the various fora is bad. For instance, the Madurai forum has neither the president nor the two Members.

While the posts of president and a member have been vacant since July 15 this year, the other member's post has been vacant since August 29 last.

In Chengalpattu, the forum is non-functional, as it has no president and short of a member. The post of a member in the Nilgiris district has not been filled since April 2001. Similarly, the Salem forum has not had a member for the past three years.

Out of the six combined district fora, (the president of one forum is in-charge of the forum of the neighbouring district too), the Salem-Dharmapuri, Dindigul-Pudukottai, Sivaganga-Ramanathapuram, Vellore-Tiruvannamalai and Chengalpattu-Villupuram fora are not functioning.

Only the Tirunelveli-Tuticorin combined fora are working. In all, two posts of presidents and 45 posts of members (22 males and 23 females) are vacant.

Source : The Hindu