The Monggar District Court dismissed a petition filed by a group of poultry farmers in Monggar, yesterday. The poultry farmers submitted the petition to the district court on Wednesday, as they were not happy with the compensation they received from Karma Feeds last year. The company compensated 31 farmers in Monggar after birds fell ill and died due to supposedly contaminated feeds in December last year.
According to the court, the case was dismissed since the consumer has to lodge the complaint to the Office of the Consumer Protection prior to submitting it before the court. Section 91 of the Consumer Protection Act states that the Consumer Advocate shall receive complaints from consumers, investigate complaints, mediate and conciliate the disputes and refer the dispute to the Dispute Settlement Committee if it cannot be resolved amicably and report the decisions to the committee to the Office of Consumer Protection. They can however appeal against the order to the court within a period of ten days from the date of the order if they are not satisfied with the decision of the Committee.
Meanwhile, after the court dismissed their petition, the poultry farmers redirected their petition to the Regional Office of Economic Affairs in Monggar yesterday. It was forwarded to the Office of Consumer Protection under the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Thimphu.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
Edited by Sonam
