"Government is proposing to amend the Consumer Protection Act as there are so many issues... We want to give more teeth to the consumer laws," he told reporters here last evening.
The matter will be placed before cabinet and it is expected that the new laws will be in place this year, he said.
"We have written to the state governments also. If there is a consensus, it can be passed this year itself," he said.
As per the present set up there are three levels of courts- district, state and national level - to look into consumers issues. This causes lot of delays. "We are trying to simplify the proceedings, trying to make the process easy by having no revocations".
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There are also plans to have a National Common Market system which will fix a uniform price for essential food articles.
Giving example, the minister said there is "mandi" system in Punjab where farmers have no choice, but to go through the system.
Paswan, who reviewed the functioning of Central Warehousing Corporation and Food Corporation of India and Bureau of Indian Standards in Kerala, here last night, said "the Centre had accepted the state's plea for granting one lakh metric tonne capacity space from FCI godowns and by March 31 we will be handing it over in nine places. The Central Warehousing Corporation also will be giving 15,000 tonne space to the state, he said.
On the state's plea for more food grains beyond the allocated 14.2 lakh tonnes, he said the Centre was willing to increase it to 16 lakh tonnes, but it would incur additional charges. The state government had assured that by March 31, it would implement the Food Security Act, he said.