Welcome to Alternative Consumer Association of Bangladesh. This
blog is dedicated to the Consumers of Bangladesh. Consumers submit opinions about their experiences from different goods and services here. For example, you are
dissatisfied with bad network of your cell operator, you can share it here or you are happy with a particular brand you can share it and as such you can share about all products or services, Thus we can be aware of better and bad quality goods and
services.
A Mr. Mojammel Haque has sent his opinion in the Daily Ittefaq on March 09, 2009 stating that, he obtained a credit card from BRAC bank namely “Free for Life” card. He alleged that he had been using the card for several years while paying the monthly bills regularly. He further mentions that in his card there was an unpaid balance of Tk 0.96, which is less than Tk 1.00. As the amount was very small he did not care for paying any bills further. Lately in the month of March he has found that his credit card has a bill of Tk Tk 8069.77. Shocked with this balance he called the Call Center and got a reply that he has to pay the bill and he has no other option. …
The above is the extract taken from “Letters to Editor” page of The Daily Ittefaq. I personally think, the matter which has been published as above, does not provide sufficient information to justify the facts, because the Mr. Haque did not provide when he had an unpaid balance of Tk 0.69 and when he received the bill for unpaid amount. Yet, whatever time period passed in between, I think a bill of Tk 8069.77 is an impossible bill for an amount less than One taka. If the thing is true, we the consumers should go tough against this kind of fees and charges of credit card in our country. Dear readers, if you have any relevant or similar experience with your credit card bills, please share it here. Thanks.
The following article is extracted from FDA's website. Link is here.
Turtles may look like cute pets, but it is estimated that they are responsible for over 70,000 cases of Salmonella infections every year in the USA.
Some of these infections can be serious or even fatal. In one case, a four week-old infant died of a Salmonella infection that was traced to a pet turtle in the home. In another case, two teenage girls became very ill after they swam in an un-chlorinated family pool where pet turtles had been allowed to swim.
Children, people with compromised immune systems, the elderly and pregnant women are especially susceptible to Salmonella infections. In addition to their susceptibility from an immune standpoint, young children are at high risk because they are likely to handle the turtles, and then without washing their hands, handle food or touch their mouths which increase the possibility of ingesting the bacteria.
It does not require touching the turtle to be exposed to the Salmonella, because the turtle sporadically sheds the bacteria into its water and housing. So people cleaning the turtle’s bowl can become infected, too. Salmonella is also carried by other reptiles and amphibians.
FDA’s primary recommendation is to not buy small turtles as pets or gifts. For those who already own a turtle, reptile, or amphibian, here are some basic rules to help prevent illness:
If your family is expecting a child, remove the animal from the home before the baby arrives.
Keep turtles out of homes with children under five, the elderly, or those with weakened immune systems.
Always wash hands thoroughly with soap and water after touching the turtle or any object it has come in contact with.
Do not clean turtle tanks or other supplies in the kitchen sink, and use bleach to disinfect the area where the turtle tank is cleaned.
Be aware that children can contract Salmonella infections from turtles in petting zoos, parks, classrooms and daycare facilities.
If you do have a turtle, watch for symptoms of Salmonella infection, such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and headache, and call a doctor if these occur.
Possibly it is in Bangladesh you will always find a tense, common everywhere is, Present Perfect Continuous Tense, which means, the execution of the event has taken place and it is still in a continuum and did not stop. Not going far back, I start only since 2004. If we consider it started in 2004, it started very well. The Daily Star covered a big story in 2004 showing what kind of food is being adulterated with what kind of color and chemicals. It also showed pictures. The Link is here: http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2004/11/01/cover.htm. In that article, The Daily Star concluded this way ….
“ ……. Obviously consumer rights protection has to be made popular and effective. The CAB (Consumers Association of Bangladesh), the only private organisation working in this arena, has been lobbying for the last ten years for an effective law that would enable the government to prosecute the crime of food adulteration. The law titled Consumers Rights Protection Act, which was basically drafted by CAB, has already been approved in principle by the cabinet. "The file is now lying with the Commerce ministry from where it will go to the Law ministry and then it will be examined by the parliamentary committee before it is finally approved by the parliament and made into an act," informs Quazi Faruque, general secretary of the CAB. Faruque is hopeful that fighting adulteration of food will be a lot easier once the proposed act comes into effect………….”
As par the news above, the law has been drafted and then it was lying with Commerce Ministry. In August 2005, almost a year later, as par newspaper clips, it is found that, DCCI made an initiative to knock government in this issue. The World Trade Review has an article on this. An excerpt from the same looks like this:
“……Speakers at a roundtable urged the government to enact the proposed Consumers Rights Protection Act immediately. Only a proper law can protect the consumer rights, the experts observed. … The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) organised the roundtable titled "Protection of Consumer Rights" in Dhaka with Acting DCCI President Manzur-ur Rahman Ruskin in the chair. ……. Director of Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute (BSTI) M Safiqur Rahman stressed the need for a strict law to replace the existing laws immediately to protect the consumer rights…”
So, again in 2005, we notice that. Consumer Rights Protection Act is still in the womb of Commerce Ministry. Lately, in this recent time, On February 07, 2009, as par The New Nation, we come to know that:
Industries Minister Dilip Barua has underlined the need for modernisation of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) to expand markets of Bangladeshi industrial products at home and abroad…… Dilip Barua said the government has issued the Consumers Rights Protection ordinance recently to protect consumers rights….”
Finally our honorable minister of Industries has mentioned that the government has issued Consumer Rights Protection Ordinance….. www.bdlaws.gov.bd is a wonderful website where the laws and ordinances are enlisted and you can search any specific law out of here. I have visited the site and found that our caretaker government has approved the Consumer Right Protection Ordinance on October 13, 2008. Now its on the current parliament to pass it as a law. I hope, since that point, we can expect a rigorous enforcement of the law to reduce our customer dissatisfaction. Dear brothers and sisters, we are having our time ahead when we have to be keener on searching where the bad manufacturers are spoiling our foods or other consumer goods. The complete Consumer Rights Protection ordinance can be seen here and an indexed view is here. I request you all to read it thoroughly so that we know what rights we have from the naughty manufacturers or traders.
An ambitious issue is that the Industries minister Dilip Barua has mentioned about modernizing BSTI in his above mentioned speech, what would be the logical consequence after the law of Consumer Right Protection is finalized. We show our gratitude to the honorable minister for saying this and at the same time, I urge to all consumers of Bangladesh, not to forget that, our Industries Minister has committed to modernize BSTI, and we must keep the issue alive until BSTI is grown at its desired level to ensure consumers’ welfare at optimum level.
Seventy-five percent clients of Wasa in four divisional cities say that they did not get results after lodging complaints with the authorities concerned.
This was revealed in a Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) survey on 400 Wasa clients in Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal, and Chittagong divisional cities.
Eighty percent of them complained that they do not get supply water round the clock and in many cases supply water is unavailable 12 to 15 hours a day.
A staggering 37 percent said they do not get supply water before leaving home for work in morning.
The survey revealed that 47 percent of the clients do not get their bills from Wasa on time and many of them complained that Wasa gives three or four months' bill at one go which often puts them in difficulty.
Around 60 percent said they now use more water while 30 percent said their use of water has not increased.
Meanwhile, some residents of Dhaka, liker those of other cities, have been getting dirty and smelly water for the last two weeks, sources said.
Officials at Dhaka Wasa (Water Supply and Sewerage Authority) are blaming pollution in the river Balu and Shitalkhya for this. They say that they have to use more chemicals in the Syedabad water treatment plant due to the severity of water pollution.
Dhaka Wasa also fails to meet the water demand in the city as it still has a supply-demand deficit of around 40 crore litres a day.
I wonder, why news of the following kind does not get motion or lose continuation and follow up and why after a period of time it is forgotten? Do we not even get to know that, the problems have been removed from the products or the contaminated products have been pulled back from the market, or it might happen that 'nothing happened' after this report, we could even ask to know that piece of information, can't we?
Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) in a recent test found that the samples of 10 ghee brands and a butter oil brand, all certified by the BSTI itself, are adulterated.
Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB) leaders, who sent the samples to BSTI, disclosed it at a press conference at the CAB conference hall in the capital's Segun Bagicha. The CAB leaders said they sent the samples of ghee of 12 and butter oil of two brands to the BSTI laboratory on September 29 and received the test results on November 4, which said 10 samples of the 12 ghee brands and one of the two butter oil brands were adulterated.
The 10 ghee brands are New Baghabari Company, Mirza Mubashwer and Company, Baghabari Pure Gawa Ghee Co, MMH Multi Chemi Ltd, Square Consumer Products, Anil Ghosh's Baghabari Special, Jewel Food Products Ltd, SK Ghosh, Janani Special Gawa Ghee, and Bhai Bhai Food Products Ltd.
The BSTI test conducted under 10 parameters found the samples of ghee of state-owned Bangladesh Milk Producers Cooperative Union Ltd and Brac Dairy and Food safe for consumption. The samples of 10 other brands were found imperfect in two to five parameters.
Courtesy: The Financial Express Link to the news is here.
The market intelligence system, revived by commerce ministry after a gap of 16 years, has started monitoring the prices of essentials, official sources said on Tuesday.
Three intelligence teams, formed under the directive of the commerce ministry, have prepared working plans about the city's main wholesale hubs -- Moulvibazar, Babubazar, Karwanbazar and Shyambazar, they said.
Besides, three such teams, one each in Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna, will also be formed immediately to start similar activities, according to the commerce ministry directive.
The directive said the teams will prepare confidential reports on supply and stocks of nine food items such as rice, wheat/ata, pulse, soybean, milk powder, onion, potato, salt and sugar.
Directive has also been given to the teams to submit recommendations in case of big gap in prices between wholesale and retail markets.
The government will take necessary measures and future steps as per teams' suggestions.
The teams will pay visit to the markets twice -- one in working day and the other in holiday-- in a week, added the directive.
Commerce ministry officials said revival of the market intelligence has been taken in line with the election pledge made by the present government to keep the price of essential commodities within the reach of common men.
It will help the ministry enhance its role in market monitoring, they said.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) is, however, not so upbeat about the intelligence teams and their objectives in curbing the prices of essential commodities, said its president Borhan Ahmed.
"Despite the vigilance the upward trend in price of many essentials might continue," he said.
"You need something real effective measure to break the cartel of dishonest traders and prevent toll collection from markets and transports," he said.
A market intelligence unit under the same ministry existed until 1992.
It was abolished in early 1900s when the country became a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)- a multinational organisation preaching free market economy.
Despite being members of the WTO many countries including India, Malaysia and China have such intelligence units, sources said.
The commerce ministry recently gave some additional responsibilities to Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) to prepare research works on the local market.
It will design its future strategies on the basis of BFTI research work to monitor the local market.
A new project to engage the public in consumer policy making by the European Commission could prove a useful tool for national constituencies too.
The European project VoicE is a digital platform created to facilitate the participation of citizens in the consumer policies of the European Union.
Co-funded by the European Commission through the programme eParticipation, the initiative allows citizens to communicate with representatives in the European Parliament through the website www.voice.gva.es (Spanish) www.bw-voice.eu (German), and voice their opinions and queries on consumer topics including nutrition, energy, telecommunications and toy safety.
Information on the project is also available in English at www.give-your-voice.eu
Consumer protection is an everyday issue that affects us all. For this reason VoicE has been created to increase public knowledge about EU decision making and to allow consumers to communicate with politicians in order to influence policy. Through access to forums and letters to MEPs, citizens will instantly have an active means of participation and influence, while MEPs will explain their views on issues, contribute in forums to consumer concerns and be interviewed.
The current VoicE project is a trial version, the success of which could open the door to greater citizen participation not only consumer issues but also other European Policy areas and national parliaments.
