- Consumer awareness programs held at Ladakh Scouts Unit, Kharu and GHSS Khaltse
Leh, Sept 12: To create awareness about consumer protection and grievance redressal mechanism available under Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021, a Townhall Meeting was organized by the Office of Ombudsman, RBI, Jammu at Leh.
The programme was chaired by Ramesh Chand, RBI Ombudsman (RBIO), for Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Besides, Zonal Head of J&K Bank and senior officials of State Bank of India, the meeting was attended by more than 250 participants including various bank branch heads, members of various Self-Help Groups and Financial Literacy Centres, students and customers of regulated entities of RBI.
In his keynote address, Ramesh Chand highlighted the customer centric features of the Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021 (RBIOS-2021) which aims to improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against regulated entities such as banks, NBFCs and payment service operators, etc.
He explained about various initiatives being undertaken by the Reserve Bank to protect and safeguard the customers’ right and the manner of functioning of Office of RBI Ombudsman in meeting the objective of customers’ grievances redressal in a cost free, expeditious and fair manner.
He cautioned the participants about the use of different innovative methods of digital frauds by the fraudsters and appealed to the participants to stay away from the lure of such tricks/offers. He also made the participants aware about the precautions to be taken while carrying out banking transactions through netbanking/ debit/credit card.
He briefed the participants about RBI’s Complaint Management Portal and the easy ways of lodging complaints under RBIOS-2021. He advised them to visit RBI website https://cms.rbi.org.in for further details on filing of complaint etc. The Ombudsman also encouraged the participants to come forward and raise their queries for on-the-spot disposal.
Senior officials of State Bank of India and J&K Bank explained the Internal Grievance Redress Mechanism available in their respective banks for the knowledge and convenience of the participants. They also thanked RBI Ombudsman Office for conducting the Townhall meeting in Leh and urged the participants to take full benefit of the platform to resolve their queries.
Later, an interactive session was held, wherein the participants raised queries and complaints related to banking services, which were addressed/clarified on the spot. The meeting was concluded with a quiz round for all the participants and winners of the quiz were felicitated with attractive prizes.
Further, in the lead-up to the Townhall meeting, the Office of the RBI Ombudsman successfully conducted two significant consumer awareness programs in the region. The first program was held on September 10, 2024 at 1 Ladakh Scouts Unit, Kharu, specifically organized for the armed forces personnel and witnessed over 200 participants from various army ranks.
The second program was conducted on September 11, 2024 at the Government Higher Secondary School in Khalste, targeting the students and public of the region and was attended by over 200 participants. The programs were well received by the participants and it highlights the efforts being made by RBI in safeguarding the rights of banking consumers through various measures including literacy campaigns being run by the RBI through various media.
