Maharashtra to showcase rural scheme in UN
By IANSWednesday, August 4, 2010
MUMBAI - The Maharashtra home ministry’s four-year-old policy of alternative rural disputes resolution scheme to reduce judicial burden will be showcased before the United Nations in New York, a top official said here Wednesday.
A presentation on the Mahatma Gandhi Mission for Dispute Free Villages (MGMDFV) - a brainchild of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and current Home Minister R.R. Patil - will be made by Pune Rural Superintendent of Police P. Dighavkar at the UN headquarters in New York Aug 11.
“Officials from all the concerned departments of the UN have been invited to view the presentation by the state government. They will also discuss the working of the MGMDFV, its finer nuances and success across the state,” Dighavkar told IANS.
He said that the scheme was launched with the intention of permitting the people in villages to resolve all their disputes at the local level itself, on the principles of natural justice, without external or judicial intervention.
“There are many inter-village and intra-village problems in the state, as in the other states in India, which create bitter animosity among the people, divide them and result in loss of precious resources. The scheme enables them to resolve their grievances at the base level,” Dighavkar explained.
Since the decisions are voluntary, without external interference or pressures of any kind, both the aggrieved parties honour the final verdict.
“Any person can make an application for resolving his or her grievance and it is resolved within a fortnight. The committee meets at any venue convenient to all, be it a temple, school or even under a tree,” he said.
The disputes - comprising criminal, civil, revenue and others - are settled by a local committee which includes the elected legislator, the district and village administration, village head, village revenue officer, village development officer, police, journalists, doctors, businessmen and lawyers.
The villages which have shown exemplary performance in settling disputes are also given handsome cash rewards by the government. Otherwise, the MGMDFV is a zero-financial liability on the government, according to Dighvkar.
