The Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO) has questioned the state government, particularly the district administration/deputy commissioner, as to why the shortage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) has become common.
NVCO press and media cell in a press release stated that this has led to more black marketing, and with the recent price hike, the rate of LPG, in the black markets has shot up to Rs.1600 per filled cylinder in Kohima and Rs. 1400 in Dimapur.
Stating that citizens were suffering immensely queuing up for long hours, NVCO questioned the government as to why it fails to understand the huge gap between demand and supply of LPG cylinders.
Coming to another product, NVCO stated that a citizen had approached its president with three types of medicines, on which the citizen had spent more than Rs.18000. The concerned Ayurvedic doctor issued no receipt and the medicine had no label, no name, no cover, no information, no expiry date, etc, claimed NVCO. At the request of the complainant, the NVCO president called the concerned ayurvedic doctor and brought up the suspicious lack of information, but the doctor simply hung up the phone after listening for a while.
Coming to yet another issue, the NVCO also cautioned bakeries against selling expired goods and asked the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and designated food safety officer, Kohima to expedite follow up investigations for the safety of consumers. It has also asked the consumers to check the expiry dates of products before buying them.
It appreciated the initiative of the Tuesang Chamber of Commerce & Industries in building the much-needed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the District Hospital in Tuesang and claimed that the government had remained a silent spectator on this issue.
It alleged that “the record shows that the sum of more than 16 crores was spent for procuring ICU machine but in reality the department had spent the sum of 5 crore only.” The NVCO asked the department to justify to the public where the remaining sum of eleven crores went.
The NVCO also asked whether the cabinet decision to not donate or announce of monetary grants while attending public programs and function covers the Governor, as he has been donating sums of one or two lakhs to various groups and communities during his official visit to districts.
NVCO also asked whether there was any protocol to host various guests, individuals, groups, communities at Raj Bhavan.