Parliament Question: Grievance redressal and enforcement of quality standards

ORIGINAL IN HINDI GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2750 (OIH) TO BE ANSWERED ON 17.03.2026 GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL AND ENFORCEMENT OF QUALITY STANDARDS 2750. SHRI MITHLESH KUMAR: (OIH) SHRI KESRIDEVSINH JHALA: SHRI SHAMBHU SHARAN PATEL: SHRI BRIJ LAL: SHRI DEEPAK PRAKASH: SMT. KIRAN CHOUDHRY: SHRI MASTHAN RAO YADAV BEEDHA: SHRI BABURAM NISHAD: SHRI S. SELVAGANABATHY: Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state: (a) whether an increase in complaints relating to food adulteration, particularly milk products, spices and edible oils, has been recorded on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) during the first quarter of 2026; (b) if so, the details thereof; (c) the coordination mechanism with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to ensure timely disposal of cases filed against defaulting Food Business Operators (FBOs) and compensation to consumers; and (d) the status of integration of the e-Jagriti portal with State food safety laboratories for tracking of sample testing? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE, CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B.L. VERMA) (a) to (d): The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs has emerged as a single point of access to consumers across the country for their grievance redressal at pre-litigation stage. Consumers can register their grievances from all over the country in 17 languages including Hindi, English, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Nepali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Maithili, Santhali, Bengali, Odia, Assamese and Manipuri through a toll-free number 1915. These grievances can be registered on Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism (INGRAM), an omni-channel IT enabled central portal, through various channels- WhatsApp (8800001915), SMS (8800001915), email (nch-ca@gov.in), the NCH app, the web portal (consumerhelpline.gov.in) and the Umang app, as per their convenience. 1,398 companies, who have voluntarily partnered with NCH as part of the ‘Convergence’ programme directly respond to these grievances according to their redressal process and revert by providing a feedback to the complainant on the portal. Complaints against those companies who have not partnered with National Consumer Helpline are forwarded to the company for redressal.The details of complaints related to food adulteration registered on NCH during the period January 2026 to February 2026 and January 2025 to February 2025 are as follows: Duration No. of complaints registered January 2026 to February 2026 250 January 2025 to February 2025 331 The Department regularly monitors grievance data received on the helpline and holds meetings with the concerned Ministries, Departments and Regulators including the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism and ensure timely resolution of consumer complaints. FSSAI operates a dedicated consumer grievance portal on FoSCoS which is an online grievance redressal mechanism (https://foscos.fssai.gov.in/consumergrievance/). Consumers can register complaints on the portal upon which a unique code/ticket number is generated and communicated to the consumer through SMS on the registered mobile number. As per the online system, the complaint is first forwarded to the concerned Food Business Operator (FBO). If the consumer is not satisfied with the response of the FBO or in cases where the FBO fails to respond, the complaint is escalated to the respective State/ Central Food Authority for subsequent action. The Department has launched “e-Jagriti” portal on 1st January, 2025, which aims to enhance consumer grievance redressal through Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning integration and modern features like faceless onboarding and role-based dashboards. It unifies existing applications (OCMS, e-Daakhil, NCDRC CMS, CONFONET) into a single, scalable platform, allowing users to file complaints seamlessly from anywhere with multilingual support. The portal is designed to provide a convenient, transparent and efficient means for consumers to seek redressal by enabling online complaint filing, digital submission of documents, online payment of fees and also supports virtual courtrooms, enabling the hearing of cases remotely and ensuring faster disposal while reducing dependency on physical infrastructure. These features address bottlenecks like geographical barriers, scheduling conflicts and manual interventions. e-Jagriti has reduced reliance on physical proceedings and has accelerated justice delivery. ****