Village courts settle 561 criminal, civil cases in seven months in Naogaon

NAOGAON, July 31: A total of 561 criminal and civil cases were settled by the village courts in Mohadevpur upazila of the district in the last seven months.

A village court, created by The Village Court Ordinance 1976, has both criminal and civil jurisdictions. These civil and criminal jurisdictions of the courts cover different types of civil and criminal cases that can be amicably solved in the village courts.

Sources said the Eco-Social Development Organisation (USDO) in association with the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives is conducting the courts with the financial supports of European Union and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under a project named ' Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh (Phase-2).

Under the project, ten village courts were set up in ten unions of the upazila in late 2017. However, the courts took a long time to be activated properly.

Finally, in last seven months this year the village courts received some 616 cases. The cases were submitted by 434 male and 182 female persons of the upazila.

Of the total 616 cases, 561 were resolved in the village courts. Against the cases, Tk. 21,92,864 were collected as compensation.

Upazila convenor of ESDO Shahnaz Begum said in order to ensure justice the Union Parishad chairman, secretary, member and other court assistants received necessary training before beginning of the project.

People are showing more interest to resolve cases in village courts instead of going to police stations, she added.

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