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A National Consumer Help Line (NCH) will be set up at Delhi University by the Department of Consumer Affairs to promote awareness among consumers regarding their rights and responsibilities. This help line would also provide telephonic as well as personal counselling to consumers besides providing assistance for out of court settlement of consumer disputes.
The centre will be established in the Department of Commerce at Delhi School of Economic, Delhi University under the guidance of Prof. Shri Ram Khanna, Head of Department of Commerce who will be the project coordinator. The approximate cost of the project is Rs. 3.12 crore which will be provided by the Department from Consumer Welfare Fund, and will be made available to the University of Delhi in a period of three years. The University of Delhi will be conducting market service and field visit to elicit public opinion on problems faced by consumers for their redressal. A website on NCH will also be opened by the University of Delhi with a database on handling consumer queries.
The National Help Line envisages a toll free telephone number with eight lines where a citizen can call from any part of the country and seek guidance for his consumer problems. In the initial stages the languages proposed for this service are Hindi and English. The Call Centre will have Interactive Voice Response System based software to handle incoming calls, which will be dealt with by pre-programmed and pre-recorded answers to standard queries. Students and teachers of Delhi University will provide part of the manpower in running the help line.
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