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'Amendment in Consumer Protection Act in budget session'

An amendment to the Consumer Protection Act to give more teeth to consumer forums in the country is on the cards, according to Union Consumer Affairs and Food Distribution Minister Shanta Kumar.

The proposed amendment will eliminate certain shortcomings in the CPA and strengthen it, he told a press conference in Nagpur on Wednesday.

"There had been inordinate delays while deciding the cases by the consumer forums while some of them were non-functional," he admitted.

"We will overcome it with this amendment in CPA during the current budget session of Parliament," he said.

The government was also amending sugar development board rules to encourage sugar industry he said adding 4000 mw energy can be produced from sugarcane waste and the Centre was considering giving permission to sugar factories to generate power.

The minister said the Centre was asking state governments to purchase surplus power from sugar factories.

"Molasses would be used to produce ethanol to mix with petrol as fuel for vehicles," he said. Ten per cent of ethanol was permitted to mix with petrol, he added. This would save several millions of rupees on importing petrol, he claimed.

Shanta Kumar said the five-point programme by his ministry announced on December 25 on the occasion of birthday of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be beneficial to poor people and those living below the poverty line.

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