Arunachal: One Day Online State Consultative Meeting on Legal Literacy for Gaon Buras and Buris
Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh State Legal Services Authority (APSLSA) organized a “One Day Online State Consultative Meeting on Legal Literacy for Gaon Buras and Buris of Arunachal Pradesh” on 30th August, 2020. This meeting was organized in collaboration with Dept. of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice under Access to Justice North East and Jammu & Kashmir(A2J NEJK) Project.
Representatives of Gaon Buras & Buris from 14 districts participated in the Consultative Meeting. The objectives of the meeting was to share the initiatives taken by APSLSA with regard to training for Gaon Buras and Buris, record best practices and success stories from Gaon Buras on Legal Empowerment and to understand various gaps in legal literacy from various personnel of GBs institution to ensure effective roles of Gaon Buras and Buris in the community.
The meeting began with Smt. Jaweplu Chai, Member Secretary APSLSA highlighting initiatives taken by State Authority with regard to Training of Gaon Buras and Buris in Arunachal Pradesh on Legal Literacy and stated the objectives of the meeting. She shared that the State Authority has conducted training for 484 Gaon Buras/Buris covering 22 districts under the Project “Training of Gaon Buras and Buris, the traditional village council system of Arunachal Pradesh”.
This was followed by Prashant S. Lokhande, IAS, Commissioner of Investment Planning, Agriculture Production & Chairman APSSB speaking on “Institution of Gaon Buras and Buris of Arunachal Pradesh and Present Scenario; roles and responsibilities of Gaon Buras & Buris”. He expressed the importance of GBs role in administration of justice at all levels. He also expressed that GBs, apart from resolving disputes in the community have many additional roles for the betterment of the society. He enunciated that GBs have strong responsibilities in ensuring that there is no corruption in the community. He also asked the GBs to pay attention at the gender aspect when exercising their roles in the community.
Various topics were also covered at the meeting by learned and experienced officials. DC Lower Subansiri, Smt. Swetika Sachan, IAS who spoke on “Legal Literacy for effective role of Gaon Buras/Buris at local level” where she shared about the roles and responsibilities of GBs and limitation of their power. She asked the GBs to strictly follow the regulation as mentioned in the Assam Frontier Regulation(AFR), 1945 so as to ensure that any judgement they passed against disputes doesn’t get appealed at the DC office.
SP of Itanagar, Tumme Amo spoke on “Synergy Between Gaon Buras/Buris and Police”. He shared that the GBs are like police on areas where there is no police station. He requested to GBs to cooperate with the police in maintaining law and order in the community.
Budi Habung, District & Session Judge, Pasighat cum Chairman, DLSA East Siang spoke on the topic “Synergy Between Customary Practices and Formal Laws”. He spoke about the changes in roles and responsibilities of GBs with the arrival of Judiciary body in the state and the need conduct more training to promote awareness among the GBs with regards to their functions and powers. He also added that GBs should practice fair approach when resolving dispute in the community.
Apart from them, Smt. Kani Nada Maling, Secy. APWWS and Dr. Jumyir Basar, Prof. Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, RGU shared on issues and challenges of GBs institution on Legal Aspect and how it can be addressed. They both echoed with regards to the appointment of new GBs that there should be no political personnel influence at the time of their appointment.
Feedbacks and suggestions were received from GBs representatives; Yachang Tacho, Convenor Apatani Gaon Burra Buri Assn, Urgen Tsering Convenor GB Welfare Assn, Tawang District, Mrs Narang Yamyang, Head Gaon Buri, Hong Village Ziro and Tache Lombi, Gen. Secy. of All Arunachal Pradesh Gaon Buras Welfare Assn also shared their best practices and success stories on how the public has received benefits from them with regards to legal literacy.
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They spoke about various awareness initiatives taken by them after the completion of their training and how it had benefitted the public. They also raise their issues and challenges in exercising their roles due to limited knowledge. They felt that more training should be conducted at circle and village levels on laws, schemes of Govt. and specially on roles of GBs under AFR, 1945.
Smt. Jaweplu Chai, Member Secretary, APSLSA ensure to incorporate all the suggestion provided by all speaker and shared about upcoming plans of the State Authority with regards to legal Literacy for GBs. The programme concluded with vote of thanks from Shri Dani Belo, Deputy Secretary, Law and Judicial Dept. cum OSD to APSLSA.
Apart from Gaon Buras and Buris, representative of Deputy Commissioner; Tawang, East Siang Lower Subansiri districts, Judicial officers; Shri Yomge Ado, DSJ cum Chairman DLSA Lohit, Smt. Bissomoti Lego CJM cum Secy. DLSA Yupia, Shri Habung Tangu, CJM cum Secy. DLSA West Siang, Utumsoo Boo, JMFC cum Secy. DLSA Tawang Charman, advocates etc attended the online meeting.
