Cement co asked to pay Rs 1.5 lakh for poor quality cement

The apex consumer commission has directed a cement manufacturing company to pay Rs 1.5 lakh as compensation to a man for providing poor quality cement which led to leakage in roof slabs made out of it. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) asked Ramco Cements to pay the amount to Kerala resident Anandaraj after dismissing the company's appeal against the state commission's order.

The NCDRC noted that state commission's order upholding the district forum's decision asking the firm to pay compensation was based on a report filed by an expert commissioner who was an associate professor of civil engineering at National Institute of Technology in Calicut, reports PTI.

"It is brought out in the said report that leakage of water was observed in the roof slabs at many locations in the building, over all parts like bedroom, kitchen, dining hall, toilet, etc.

The expert opined that the cracks could have developed due to poor quality of cement," the NCDRC observed.

"The petitioners (Ramco) have not been able to establish, therefore, how the findings in the report of the expert commissioner are wrong in any manner," the apex consumer bench headed by presiding member B C Gupta said.

According to the complaint filed by Anandaraj, he had bought 65 sacks of cement for construction of his house from an authorised agency and the roof slabs were cast on February 3, 2007.

The complaint said that cracks were found on the slabs the next day after the casting.The district forum appointed an expert commissioner to test the quality of the cement.

The expert commissioner had submitted a report based on which the forum directed the firm to pay Rs 1.35 lakh for the construction of new slabs along with Rs 10,000 as compensation and Rs 5,000 as legal expenses.

The firm claimed that it is a reputed company and there could not be any fault in the quality of the cement supplied to Anandaraj since their manufacturing, testing and quality control were under the supervision of the Bureau of Indian Standards. However, it failed to get relief.