RAJSHAHI, April 24, 2018 (BSS) – Village court can play a vital role in establishing justice if elected public representatives perform their duties properly to operate union parishad (UP) level village courts for ensuring justice at grassroots, according to experts.
“Village Court, the lowest tier of the country’s judicial process, needs to be strengthened as it has a vital role to play in resolving the grassroots litigations,” UNDP National Project Coordinator Sarder Asaduzzaman told a conference here yesterday.
Divisional Commissioner Office and Local Government Division in association with the Village Court Activation Project in Bangladesh (2nd Phase), European Union and UNDP organised the conference, titled ‘Importance of Local Administration to Village Court Activation’ at Shilpakala Academy Auditorium.
Chaired by LGD Director Shayam Kishore Roy, the conference was addressed, among others, by Commissioner of Rajshahi division Nur-Ur-Rahman, Additional Commissioner Aminul Islam, Deputy Commissioners Kamrun Nahar Siddiqua, SM Abdul Kader and Jasim Uddin, Superintendent of Police Abdus Salam, UP Chairman Khandakar Fazlul Haque and UNDP Project Coordination Officer Shamim Ahsan Chowdhury.
Nur-Ur-Rahman said: “There are enormous scopes of establishing good governance. Justice contributes predominantly towards restoring peace by curtailing people’s tendency to commit crime within their respective communities.”
He said the village court could be an effective tool of disposal of the village level lawsuits if it can work neutrally. To this end, he said, utmost emphasis should be given to ensuring transparency and accountability in conducting the courts.
More than 195 participants, including 131 UP chairmen and 16 upazila nirbahi officers from 16 project-covering upazilas in Naogaon, Pabna and Sirajgonj districts, took part in the conference.