SANTANU CHATTAPADHYA, director of consumer affairs and fair business practices, met readers of The Telegraph at his office last week to answer their queries Participants included S.C. Palit, Prabir Ghosh, Sandip Banerjee, Animesh Das, S.H. Khan, Pradip Pal, G. Laha, Tamal Roy and Subhasis Chakrabarty

I am sorry to say that the most of us, even the educated urbanite, have the least sense of consumer awareness. We always buy things from the market but don?t try to find out what can be done if we are cheated.

How many of us check the ISI mark before buying a baby food packet or the AG mark before buying edible substances like honey, ghee, oil and butter. Very few of us look for the FPO mark before buying an agricultural product like jam, jelly or fruit juice.

For buying genuine canned meat or fish, always check out for the mark MFPO-73. That way, consumers can reject commodities that are not standardised.

You have raised a very important issue ? of financial transactions without a receipt. However, if you buy a product from a municipal market, there is a chance for remedy if you are cheated.

If you see that a vendor is selling a sub-standard item, you can lodge a complaint with the market office, which remains open in every municipal market in the city. As only licensed sellers are allowed to sell their products in such markets, the civic authorities have the power to take steps if a trader is found guilty.

According to a 2002 amendment to the Consumer Protection Act, the definition of consumer has been extended. Now, even a government or a voluntary organisation can lodge a complaint with us. Inclusion of the Centre and the state governments within the ambit of consumer gives us an option to initiate action suo motu. We have already taken such actions.

We are planning to introduce such a theme. But we cannot immediately introduce it as we are going through a funds crunch. But once we overcome of this, we will certainly record live transactions and our subsequent steps, to increase awareness among the people. Regarding posters, I can only say that our present infrastructure does not allow us to undertake such a project.

If you notice such a lapse, please inform us so that we can warn the errant manufacturer.

As I told you earlier, the department is yet to have the required infrastructure to tackle the ongoing unfair trade practices. We have only 107 inspectors across the state.

In case of food adulteration, you can contact the civic food inspection department or the assistant medical officer of health in the districts.