We want to bring back the system of dispute resolution

Interview with R.R. Patil, Deputy Chief Minister.

R.R. Patil:

R.R. PATIL, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, enjoys tackling a difficult task. Known for his clean image in politics, Patil has never feared to take up the cudgels against anyone who blocks the road to a just society. He became Minister for the first time in 1999 and held the rural development portfolio. He was given Home at the end of 2003 after Chhagan Bhujbal resigned. He became Deputy Chief Minister on November 1, 2004.

In a free-flowing interview to Frontline, he spoke about the achievements of his government in the past three years. Excerpts:

Can you shed some light on the Tanta Mukt campaign, which the government has started recently?

It is an attempt to reduce village-level conflicts, which are hindering rural development. The countryside is plagued with conflicts based on class, caste and religion. Our attempt is to give an alternative dispute resolution system right at the village level, which will reduce litigation. We want to bring back the system of dispute resolution that existed earlier in the villages. In Maharashtra 40 lakh cases are pending, and 900 murders are taking place in the State every year. This situation has to change. That is why the State government launched the Tanta Mukt campaign. It is not only about conflict resolution but is a reformative action campaign. In the first stage, all the pending court cases would be listed. The gram sabha would elect a Tanta Mukt committee consisting of representatives from all sections of society. This committee will work towards resolving conflicts. However, the committee will not look into crimes committed under the Atrocities Act.

What has been the success rate of this campaign?

The campaign is yet to come to its full form but the efforts have started yielding fruits. Our initial steps have also been innovative. We realised that festivals create conflicts, therefore the One village, one Ganapati idea was launched. This resulted in 9,500 villages celebrating only one public Ganapati festival each. No police force was deployed in any of these villages.

How do you rate the performance of your government?

When we came to power the State faced drought-like conditions. The very next year, we faced unprecedented rains and floods. In spite of suffering such major calamities, the industrial growth and gross domestic product of Maharashtra have not been affected, which I think is a major achievement. When we took the reins of the government our treasury was empty. We did not even have money to pay government employees. Today the situation has improved and we will soon be raising Rs.16,500 crore for irrigations projects.

This year we have earmarked Rs.4,300 crore for development programmes for the Schedule Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. No other State has such a quantum of funds for the upliftment of the poor.

What has been the status of police reforms?

When we reviewed the working of the police force we realised that on an average the policemen worked 14 hours a day and worked without a break for three months. It was an inhuman situation. We decided to recruit policemen. In the past two years we have recruited 22,000 more policemen but a backlog of 33,000 vacancies still remains. This would be filled up in the next three years. The duty hours of policemen will be reduced to eight. Today our policemen and their families can go to any private hospital and get treatment and the government pays the bill.

The response time of the force to any emergency has also been reduced to five to seven minutes, which is comparable to that in advanced countries.