Consumer Rights Awareness

 The Government carries out a multi-media “Jago Grahak Jago” campaign on Pan-India basis covering both rural and urban areas through print, electronic and outdoor media. Grants-in-aid are also released to States/UTs for creating consumer awareness in the respective States/UTs at local level in their regional languages so as to further ensure that the campaign reaches the rural and backward areas of the country. The details of allocations made to various States/UTs from Consumer Awareness (Publicity) fund in the Financial Year 2016-17 is given below in table. This Department has also started taking part in rural Fairs/Melas where a large number of people congregate.  

                 This apart, grant is also given from Consumer Welfare Fund (CWF) to the States/UTs for setting up of Corpus Fund of Rs.10.00 crores for undertaking Consumer Awareness/welfare activities in their respective States/UTs including the rural and backward areas. The ratio of Centre: State share in the Corpus Fund is 75:25. In case of special category States/UTs, the ratio is 90:10. So far, Corpus Fund has been set up in 13 States/UTs. The details of States/UTs wise allocation fund from Consumer Welfare Fund is given below in table. 

(Rupees in crores)

S. No.	Name of State	Releases made from Consumer Awareness(Publicity) fund during 2016-17
1.	Arunachal Pradesh	0.20
2.	Goa	0.19
3.	Himachal Pradesh	0.20
4.	Madhya Pradesh	0.50
5.	Meghalaya	0.20
6.	Nagaland	0.20
7.	Telangana	0.18
8.	West Bengal	0.50
	West Bengal (Special Project)	0.75
9.	Andaman and Nicobar Islands (UT)	0.10
10.	Lakshadweep (UT)	0.10
	Total	3.12

 (Rupees in crores)

S.No.	Name of States	Releases made so far from Consumer Welfare Fund for setting up Corpus Fund by States/UTs
1.	Gujarat	7.50
2.	Andhra Pradesh	7.50
3.	Orissa	7.50
4.	West Bengal	7.50
5.	Bihar	7.50
6.	Nagaland	8.40
7.	Karnataka	7.50
8.	Tamil Nadu	7.50
9.	Madhya Pradesh	7.50
10.	Kerala	7.50
11.	Haryana	7.50
12.	Jharkhand	4.00
13.	Telangana	2.71
	Total	90.11

This information was given by Shri C.R. Chaudhary, the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. 

Courtesy: pib.nic.in