The Consumers' Trust (TCT) organised the roundtable on 'Consumer Rights in Bangladesh: Affective Law Needed' at the auditorium of Chittagong Press Club.

Presenting her keynote paper at the roundtable, Barrister Dr Tureen Afroz, assistant professor of School of Law of the Brac University, said the consumers in Bangladesh are being denied their basic rights, whereas Nepal like other neighbouring developing countries has already enacted comprehensive consumer protection legislation.

She said there are some laws like Control of Essential Commodities Act 1956, Pure Food Stuff Ordinance 1959, Essential Commodities Price and Bond Ordinance 1970, Weight and Measure Ordinance 1982 or Trade Mark Act 1940, which are not directly related to the consumer rights.

Pointing to some limitations of these laws, other speakers said the present law for protection of the consumers' rights is backdated as any deprived consumer is not entitled to suing a person who violates the law, adding that only the government-selected persons can take measure or file case in this connection.

They urged the present caretaker government to finalise the process of enacting the draft consumer protection law formulated in 1998 by the Ministry of Commerce.

Two bills were approved in the parliament in the tenure of two elected governments in this connection and another revised draft of a law that was framed in 2006, but the law is yet to be enacted, they lamented.

The speakers also laid emphasis on creating mass awareness about the issue.

Hossain Kabir, associate professor of Public Administration Department at Chittagong University, Advocate Wahida Idris of Bangladesh National Women's Lawyers Association (BNWLA), Shahriar Khaled, member secretary of Consumer Rights Protection Committee (CRPC), and Barrister Manjur Hasan, TCT director, spoke among others.