Paswan pleads for “One Nation One Standard”

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on September 12, 2019,  chaired a meeting on the Standard formation process of Bureau of India Standard (BIS) and their enforcement with the senior officials from 14 Ministries.

Wide ranging discussions were held on how standards are set and what can be done to make their implementation/enforcement better. Paswan exhorted that similar to “One Nation One Constitution” and “One Nation One Ration Card” there should be “One Nation One Standard”.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Paswan stated that the meeting was held with all stakeholders, Regulators and officials to review the ‘Process of Making Standards’ and also deliberate on improving the implementation and enforcement of the set Standards. He Paswan urged all stakeholders to provide all their suggestions in this regard by September 17, 2019. He also said that the purpose of setting standards and enforcing them is not intended to bring back ‘’inspector raj’’ but to ensure that quality products are made available to all consumers across the country, according to a PIB release.

Paswan asserted that Indian Standards should be set as per global benchmarks and just like other countries enforce their standards on imported products. Similarly, foreign goods coming into India should also comply with Indian standards. He said that this should be done on a reciprocal basis for International goods and a system should be put in place for effective monitoring and checking to ensure that they are effectively enforced.

Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Avinash K Srivastava, expressed happiness at the fact that the time taken to complete the process of Standards formation has been reduced from 24 months earlier to 18 months now. He said that detailed discussions were held on “One Nation One Standard” and for that it is important that BIS is empowered. Srivastava also said that since the BIS is a National Standards body, residuary powers are vested with BIS, all other standard making bodies must work in coordination with BIS.