Pathankot: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Jammu & Kashmir Branch Office (JKBO), on Friday organized a Gram Panchayat Sensitization Programme in collaboration with Sarpanch and Panchayat Secretary at Kishan Bhawan, Chak Chimna in District Pathankot, Punjab, guided by the District Development Panchayat Officer.
Approximately 50 Sarpanches, Panchas, and Panchayat Samiti Members actively participated in the program. Files and pamphlets detailing the development of BIS standards were distributed among the participants to enhance their understanding of standards in their daily lives.
Ashish Kumar Dwivedi, Standard Promotion Officer, BIS-JKBO, delivered the welcome address and provided an overview of BIS’s operations to the participants. He highlighted the role of standards in Gram Panchayats, emphasizing that BIS is the country’s quality ecosystem, ensuring the needs of end-users through Conformity Assessment Schemes based on quality, safety, and performance parameters outlined in Indian standards. Dwivedi emphasized that the ISI Mark serves as a means to offer a third-party guarantee of the quality, safety, and reliability of products and services to consumers.
Sanjiwan Singh Dadhwal, the Resource Person, presented a detailed overview of standardization, focusing on Indian standards relevant to daily life, ISI Mark Certification, and Laboratory facilities supporting certification. He demonstrated the ‘BIS Care App’. During the program, participants were educated about the significance of standards in procuring quality goods for development activities or personal needs. They also downloaded the BIS Care app and learned to use it to verify the authenticity of the genuine ISI Mark and Hallmarking, attempting validation on various products.
Participants shared their thoughts after the workshop, expressing their amazement at the knowledge gained and the realization that they can directly raise concerns or complaints through the BIS Care App to check the misuse of standard marks. The entire audience expressed gratitude for the enlightening session on BIS marking and requested more such programs in their respective villages. Neeru Bala, BDPO, Pathankot, extended thanks to the BIS team and Rajeshwar Salaria, the Resource Person from BIS, for the awareness program.
