Bhopal: Awareness, tenacity motivated these consumers to fight for their rights

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Getting judgments from a consumer’s forum is time-taking. A consumer, filing a case in a consumer’s court, has to wait even for a decade. Yet, there is a saying that the fruit of patience is sweet. Many consumers in the city stuck to this adage and fought for their rights in the city. They won.

On the occasion of the World Consumer Rights Day, Free Press spoke to some of the consumers in Bhopal, whose years of hard work yielded good results. They said how they had gone ahead with their cases and what they got after the hard work.

Excerpts:

Against Turkish Airlines

I had to perform at a concert in Switzerland in 2008. I was travelling by Turkish Airlines and was carrying a sitar, which was loaded with luggage. I was shocked when the airlines gave me damaged sitar at Zurich airport. It affected my performance. After reaching Bhopal, I filed a case in Bhopal district consumer grievances redressal forum against Turkish Airlines for damaging my sitar. I got justice after 11 years. In 2019, forum ordered Airlines to pay around Rs 3 lakh for damage, which is yet to come. For me, justice is important.

Smita Nagdev, sitarist

Justice in 11 years

I met with an accident in 2008 and my car was damaged. Then, I claimed insurance but the insurer refused it by saying that car licence was not valid. Then, I moved consumer forum in my hometown Rewa. In 2012, the forum ordered insurance company to pay Rs 1 lakh. But company filed a case in state consumer forum in Bhopal. I had to come to Bhopal from Rewa for hearings. The court ordered the company to pay Rs 3.75 lakh in 2019. It took 11 years to get justice but I am elated as my hard work paid off.

Kamad Nath Pandey, contractor

Advert on TV

Four years back, I bought two horses from Rajasthan. But later I found that the horse was changed. I informed this to a horse trader but he was not ready to listen to me. I had seen an advertisement on TV about consumer rights. So, I filed a case in Bhopal district consumer forum. After four months of fighting, the trader got ready to compromise and paid Rs 25,000. Now, I am happy that I got horse and money both.

Tulsiram Kushwaha, farmer