This story is from June 29, 2020

Chaupals help solve decades old disputes in villages

Chaupals help solve decades old disputes in villages
Prayagraj: For the past 22 years, Geeta Devi and Prabhavati Devi were at loggerheads over a dispute in Basiraha village under Fatanpur police station of Pratapgarh district. Both the parties had not only clashed over the issue several times but also filed three FIRs against each other. However, when Fatanpur police held a ‘chaupal’ at the village inviting both the parties to settle the issue, it took at least six hours when the 22 years old dispute between them got resolved.
This is not an isolated case.
Two families had been filing complaints against each other with the police on the issue of stopping water to each other’s fields at Sinalaudhi village for the past 35 years. When police called both the parties at a ‘chaupal’ held in the presence of sitting and ex- gram pradhans, the matter was solved within three hours and both the parties submitted reconciliation letters to the police assuring full cooperation to each other.
At Husainpur village under Raniganj police station, a woman was not agreeing to give a passage in front of her house to take rain water to the nearby pond. The dispute between the woman and rest of villagers continued for more than 15 years and the police finally resolved the dispute with mutual understanding.
The `chaupal’ seems to have turned into a major platform for men in khaki in Pratapgarh district to solve decades old disputes in the villages. Police claimed to have solved over 150 disputes which dated back to 30 years through mutual understanding after holding sittings with the opposite camps for hours.
Deputy SP (Ranignaj) Atul Anjan Tripathi told TOI “Holding ‘chaupal has certainly helped the police to solve decades old disputes between families in villages”. A DSP and an inspector rank officials are holding `chuapal’ daily in villages of Pratapgarh district, he added.
The DSP said that the disputes related to closing or opening of drains, construction of pathways, land grabbing, cattle entering into fields etc surface during ‘
chaupals’.
“The police started the process of holding chaupals since the incidents of clashes and disputes between two opposite camps within family or neighbours, started reaching senior cops after the arrival of migrants to their native villages” said DSP. “We have been quite successful in solving the issues as sometimes they turn into serious ones if not dealt properly”, he added.
The cops spend two hours to eight hours to solve most of the disputes. They found that people too want to get these issues solved. Interestingly, police invite sitting and ex-pradhans and other prominent personalities of village in chaupals to hear both the parties at length before reaching a decision.
SP (Pratapgarh) Abhishek Singh said, “Implementing the chaupal scheme has been quite successful in villages to sort out old problems between opposite camps to a great extent”.
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