NLU Tripura is helping close to 500 villages plan their future

NEW DELHI: Since September last year, the National Law University (NLU) Tripura has been helping over 480 gram panchayats in the state to plan their future.

NLU Tripura is helping gram panchayat members understand legal aspects of social issues, training them in budgeting and finance and evaluating the feasibility of their Gram Panchayat Development Plans – blueprints to guide economic growth.

This is part of a joint initiative of the ministries of rural development and Panchayati Raj to revamp gram panchayats. As part of this GPDP initiative, Tripura government has directed its gram panchayats to submit a development plan with a focus on economic development and social justice, before the next financial year.

But the first plans to come in were problematic, focussing too much on infrastructure and not enough on social issues and sustainable development. To rectify this, the state government brought NLU Tripura into the fold.

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NLU Tripura has signed a six-month agreement to act as technical partners and provide “handholding support”. Its legal aid cell will also tie the 480 gram panchayats to the state legal aid clinics.

NLUT: Development plan

NLU Tripura’s main role is to help balance out the lopsided plans that had first come in.

“What had happened previously was that the government prepared the plan without any technical support. They focused more on roads and other projects but issues like social justice were not given due priority. So, the government identified several challenges like inadequate participation of people in the planning process,” said Yogesh Pratap Singh, vice-chancellor, NLU Tripura.

In this year’s development plans, NLU Tripura will drive a focus on theme-based goals. For instance, Tripura faces social issues such as child marriage and hence the new development plans will have goals such as child-marriage-free panchayats and drug-abuse free panchayats. There will also be focus on environmental conservation and eco-friendly infrastructure.

“We will also be bringing onboard the block level officers, the rural programme managers, along with the trainers of the NLU, we will visit the gram panchayats. We will evaluate the GPDP plans of the panchayats. We will help the panchayats in deciding what should be prioritised while comparing with the previous development plans,” said Nachiketa Mittal, registrar, NLU Tripura.

“Solar energy-equipped villages is another thing that we will help the villages focus on,” added Singh.

NLU workshops for budgeting

Primarily, the NLU aims to conduct workshops on creating development plans, ensuring that these plans stay within the budget, and on the legal aspects of their plans and goals, whether on land or social issues.

“We will also try to collaborate at the village level and at the block level so that we can provide them help. We have budding lawyers who will also help train them. We will also be collaborating with the district judiciary,” said Mittal.

The NLU will provide a template to follow for their plans as well as create a point-by-point instruction manual to help guide them through the process.

“We will also help look at the feasibility of the plan, budgetary constraints, when the development plan is ready and is submitted to the government. …We will develop the material, the literature, that will help guide them in a point-wise manner,” said Mittal.

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“In the northeastern region, the representatives might not be so technically sound or educated. So, we need to provide support. We will guide them in all technical aspects and legal issues. The kind of issues that they will face and keeping in mind the sustainable development goals (SDGs) which the government has committed to. So, we need to prepare the plan so that it is realistic and one we can achieve with the limited resources that are available,” said Singh.

Legal aid and student involvement

The institute is also hoping to bring more legal awareness to the gram panchayats of Tripura through their legal aid clinic. Under the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) regulations, every law school in India is required to establish a legal aid clinic to provide free legal services to marginalised communities. NLU Tripura will use its legal aid clinic to provide more legal awareness to local communities as well as connect them to state legal aid services. The institute estimates that nearly 480 gram panchayats can be connected to legal aid services this way.

“Like all universities, we have a legal aid clinic. We also want the clinic to connect with the gram panchayats to help them with legal issues. We are focusing on three districts: West Tripura, Gomati, Sepahijala. So, if even three gram panchayats are connected to legal aid clinics and through them, to the state legal aid authority, that will be a great help,” said Singh.

NLU officials also said that students will be involved throughout the various stages of this project. LLM students will help senior teachers with the workshops as well as with drafting the workshop manuals.

“For students, we always try to take them to the field even at the undergraduate level. The application of law happens in the field,” explained Mittal. “We teach them all kinds of law but the application starts on the ground. So, we will take them as part of the project so that they’re also sensitised. Also, some of them who come from the rural areas can go back to their own blocks and practise at the taluk levels or block levels.”