The ‘Pre-Litigation Counselling Forum’ which was initiated by the district administration to address issues and complaints of people with regard to civil disputes is receiving a good response from the public.
Since last Wednesday, the forum has received 55 petitions from various police station limits in the city. Out of them, 11 complaints were received from Pendurthi, five from III Town, four from One Town, four from MVP Colony and the rest from other police station limits. Many complaints were settled between the parties.
The forum, a brainchild of Commissioner of Police Manish Kumar Sinha, consists of three officers — Special Deputy Collector Ch.Rangaiah, GVMC city planner A. Prabhakar, and Assistant Commissioner of Police, Dwaraka Sub-Division, R.V.S.N.Murthy. The officers sit in Room 15 in the premises of Swarna Bharathi Indoor Stadium on all Wednesdays and Fridays.
Mr. Murthy said that the response to the forum is very good. “Out of the complaints which we received, most of them are land disputes and house-site related disputes,” he said.
“We have three personnel from various departments concerned – Revenue, Town Planning of civic body and the police. In a very large number of cases, the citizens come with money or property disputes which require resolution. If we need any help from the other bodies concerned like revenue or GVMC, we can immediately take up with them. Once the petitioner approaches us, we summon both the parties and resolve the issues and forward them to Lok Adalat for passing a final judgement,” he added.
A senior police officer said that in a very large number of cases, the citizens approach police with money, property and other civil disputes which require resolution. In order to take a proactive role in finding resolution of these civil disputes within the framework of law, the police have initiated the PLCF, which has lightened the investigative load on police stations, he said.
The complaints received by this forum can be divided into various categories — family disputes, disputes with neighbours/other people, money-lending disputes, landlord/tenant disputes, disputes relating to nuisance, land disputes and others. The officials said that concerned citizens who wish to avail the services of the forum can approach their respective police stations.
