Churachandpur, February 21, 2010: A day-long seminar on the topic of 'Price rise in Manipur: Today and tomorrow need for immediate control' was organised under the aegis of Consumers' Club, Manipur at Classic Hotel, AOC here today.

The inaugural function of the seminar was attended by Deputy Chairman of State Planning Board Bijoy Koijam as chief guest, president of Consumers' Club, Manipur W Manglem as functional president and former member of Steering Committee, NE Vision 2020, DoNER Ministry, Government of India Prof N Mohendro as guest of honour.

Delivering the key note address of the seminar, general secretary of Consumers' Club, Manipur Ch Nabachandra Singh pointed out that the prices of essential commodities of day-to-day use has been on the rise steadily in Manipur.

Apart from rise in prices of essential commodities, the consumers are also being deprived of their rights due to various factors like price disparity, non-issuance of cash memo and receipts to the buyers, not writing name of the shop and failure of Imphal Municipality to initiate necessary mea- sures to control the price.

In such a situation, the consumers are forced to pay more than the actual price value of the goods being purcha-sed and waste their pre- cious time, Nabachandra explained.

He further explained that in accordance ot the provisions given under Section 2, clause I , V and IX of Consumers Protection Act, 1986, selling the same goods at different price tag is punishable.

Moreover, under the Imphal Municipal Shop Registration By-law, 1998, action can be initiated against the shops which do not posses license number of the registration.

Under the provisions of the same by-law, the consumers also have the right know the list of the goods and their stock in a shop.

Unfortunately, in Manipur, the same goods is being sold at different prices and the authority concerned has not taken up any action despite existence of many shops which do not have the required license number, Nabachandra noted.

On the other hand, as the post of the president and members in the State Commission have not been appointed, many cases that have been forwarded from the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum are still pending, he further informed, adding that this also amounts to curtailing rights of the consumers.

It is to discuss these issues that the seminar is being organised, he informed.

The technical session of the seminar was held with Prof Mohendra Singh as chairperson.

Among those who presented papers as resource persons, Social worker Ching Tam Luwang spoke on 'Donations and improper payments and price-rise in Manipur', general secretary of Manipur Keithel Nupi Marup (Khwairamband) L Mema Devi on 'Price rise in Manipur : Today and tomorrow, the need for immediate control', editor of Sanaleibak A Mobi on 'Hoarding and black marketing in Manipur and suggestions for addressing the problems', ISTV news editor Y Rupachandra on 'Economic blockade and price rise in Manipur and suggestion for addressing the problem', Inspector of Marketing Intelligence Md Isaruddin on 'Marketing intelligence in Manipur : Problems and prospects', president of All Manipur Inter-State Association A Budha Luwang on 'Problems of transportation faced by the transporters in Manipur' and DSO Chandel Deven Singh on 'Interventions of the Food and Civil Supply Department and price-response in Manipur'.

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