AHMEDABAD, Oct 13: Some men are born great while others have greatness thrust upon them.' How very true. Going by his tight and action packed weekly schedule the president of the Surat District Consumer Forum not only seems to be the busiest man in the whole of Gujarat, but also the most sincere. Perhaps not by choice, but definitely by compulsion.For N K Desai, president of the Consumer Court, Surat, has the herculean responsibility of being in charge of four courts, at Surat, Navsari, Valsad and Bharuch. And the way he juggles his time it would make even the most sought after gurus of time management go red with inferiority complex.A quick deko at his timetable: Surat on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Every first, third and fifth Thursdays of a month it is Navsari. Then it's Valsad every second and fourth Thursday.But then, how does he manage Bharuch? Well, he shuttles between breaths to look after consumer cases from Bharuch on all Fridays and the first and third working Saturdays of a month!But why, you would ask, is Desai so over zealous? Simple. It is because there are no heads at consumer courts in the other three districts. The story is the same in others districts too, though the intensity of effort and magnitude of the problems might differ.F R Makwana before he resigned as president of the Vadodara district Consumer Court was simultaneously handling Kheda and Panchmahal.V B Desai until he resigned as head of Mehsana District Court was looking after Banaskanta and Kutch. Meanwhile H V Udeshi of Bhavnagar was responsible for Surendranagar and Amreli districts. He too retired leaving the post vacant.Closer home, president of the Ahmedabad (rural) Forum N L Solanki has the added task of managing Gandhinagar and Sabarkanta.So what's happening? Wasn't the Government supposed to take up the cause of consumers seriously? How then did things go so awry? A Supreme Court direction to the Government as early as in 1993 had ordered that within one year separate forums for each district should be created and provided with the necessary infrastructure. And judges, of course. ``But the Government is not serious about all this,'' says the president of one of the badly manned district forums. ``Posts are lying vacant everywhere. Where are the appointments''?A retired High Court Judge on the condition of anonymity reveals that the ``names of 10 probable presidents of district forums are there with the Government but they are doing nothing about it. The files are just lying with them. It is also because the requisite staff have to be appointed along with the president. One person can't run the show, can he''?But while the bad news is that the Government is not at all serious about consumer concerns, the good news is that Consumer consciousness has hit an all time high. An amazing 1900 cases have been filed at the Consumer Forum, Ahmedabad City, till September this year. But then awareness about anything can have its own corresponding problems. ``How to cope up with the work,'' asks president of the Forum, C G Patel, hinting at the acute shortage of staff at the Forum. While no stenographer has been provided, there is only one overworked peon. The plea for another City Forum is still pending before the High Court.While on one side the Government asks judges to dispose off cases within 90 days of hearing, on the other it doesn't do anything to facilitate it.Meanwhile in Rajkot, Junagadh and Jamnagar district judges, who only devote a couple of hours every Friday to consumer cases, continue to look after the respective consumer forums. And it comes as no surprise that in one of these districts only two cases have been disposed off in the last three months.What is it that people say about making tall promises?
