Cheating consumers

By overcharging

Gregory E. D'Souza

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.” – Mahatma Gandhi

From the above quotation it would be better understood by the taxi operators supported by MLA Michael Lobo by changing the word customer to tourist and premise (Goa). It is said that politicians are law makers and more of law breakers. The Supreme Court has passed a judgment on introduction of speed governors for public transport system in order to take care of the safety of the consumer. Which road in Goa that runs through villages can be called a highways or safe roads? 

Our TCP and PWD have no proper designs for safe roads with footpaths to be used by pedestrians/senior citizens and children. Even the shoulder of the road is annexed and tarred, leaving no right for the pedestrian to walk on the road. They expect everyone to be moving in a motor vehicle. And to add to the number of road users, we have the stray animals as added users of the roads. At present, the noticed speed limits for roads in Goa is maximum 70 KMphr for private cars, 60 KMphr for commercial and 50KMphr  for two-wheelers but despite of all this we see racing on these roads just like the formular one. The consumer’s life is at risk by using cars/vehicle which did not pass the standard crash limits. The manufacturer should be asked to advertise the results of the test crash for the buyer to make his choice. 

The Government and RTO should be pulled up for allowing these vehicles on the roads at the first place. Since Indians are known for bypassing all safety norms and putting the customers at risk only to reduce the population and cause misery to accident families by politicians encouraging all such violations just to secure their vote banks for next elections. I hope MLA Micheal Lobo will use his good office to see that the tourist or for any matter a consumer’s life is not put to risk and cheated by over speeding and overcharging.