On June 4th, 2012, some residents from Lüluo Road Community of Xiling District came to the community office <javascript:void(0);>, complaining that many septic tanks in NO.3 courtyard were severely blocked and it was stinky. But the problem remained unsolved for a long time because the community was a restructured <javascript:void(0);> enterprise <javascript:void(0);> and the jurisdiction was not clear, which caused the discontent among the residents.
Staff in Lüluo Road Community reported this issue to the Joint Meditation Platform, and relevant departments were gathered to deal with the problem. As a result, the trouble was settled within a week.
Problems reported by people from community should not be evaded. In the process of solving social problems, Yichang government integrates all relevant departments into the list of working team to solve social problems. The departments include the 36 municipal departments that are directly under provincial government like the Municipal City Integrated Administrative Enforcement Bureau, the Municipal Public <javascript:void(0);> Security <javascript:void(0);> Bureau <javascript:void(0);>, the Municipal Administration for Industry &Commerce and some state or provincial departments. Meanwhile, 112 departments directly under prefecture-level government, 16 subdistrict <javascript:void(0);> office <javascript:void(0);>s in Yichang downtown and 127 communities are respectively brought into the social problem solving system. The establishment of Joint Mediation Information Management System, the reestablishment of procedures in problem solving, joint work made by different departments in different levels will greatly promote the collecting and solving of problems in a thorough way, thus to enhance social safety and harmony.
Risk Assessment Avoids the Source of Problems
216 projects are suspended and 20 projects are rejected.
In recent three years, Yichang Municipal <javascript:void(0);> Party <javascript:void(0);> Committee <javascript:void(0);> and the Municipal <javascript:void(0);> Government <javascript:void(0);> established a sound system of risk assessment and 1456 vital issues were assessed. It is ensured that those policies that are not beneficial to the majority of people and are not approved of by people would not be formulated, that policies won’t be formulated until publicity work is well done, and that policies that harm the people would not be formulated, so as to effectively prevent and solve disputes and unstable factors from the source.
In the risk assessment of Wanda Square project, the support from the government policies in land <javascript:void(0);> acquisition <javascript:void(0);> and <javascript:void(0);> demolition helped the people to be able to move out, settle down, have insurance and have opportunity to develop. On one hand, it protected people’s actual benefits, on the other hand, people’s long term development have been taken into consideration. Within only 86 days, the land settlement of 80,000 square meters was completed, which means a demolition work was fulfilled in a harmonious way.
A Sound Network Solves Problems
To solve problems at the very beginning and to settle disputes timely, a sound mediation network has been established in rural area. This network consists of three centers in different levels (county level, township level and village level) and a network with five grades (including inspectors of the public\'s opinion and central families), which carry out troubleshooting mechanism once a week in village, once half a month in township and once a month in county. Departments at different levels are respectively responsible to the reported problems and each department carries out its duty with the aid of multiple methods to solve these unstable issues while they are not serious yet. From the year 2001 to April 2013, mediating organizations in different levels in Yichang have solved 238,280 cases, among which 231,139 cases were successfully settled. The success rate of mediation is as high as 97%. In urban area, based on the Yichang Municipal joint mediation information management system, about 2000 cases are collected each month and the success rate of mediation reaches 98%.
Joint Mediation System Improves Efficiency
The joint mediation platform provides an open road for the common people to report their issues and makes the public’s opinions heard.
By varied forms, like visiting of people, communion with residents, government officials’ visiting to communities, residents’ chatting room, joint council of troubleshooting, hotline, online inspection, media supervision and so on, staffs of the street office <javascript:void(0);>s get closer to the <javascript:void(0);> people to collect appeals and disputes in the community. Now cases charged by offices are five times more than that in the past, among which 40% are reported directly through phone calls, short messages and internet. 52% are discovered or collected by the community <javascript:void(0);> office <javascript:void(0);>s through various means and only 8% are reported in traditional door-to-door service.
As more and more cases are reported, there must be more accessible sectors to settle down these cases when they are reported and the procedures must be optimized to improve the efficiency thus to make people’s livelihood better.
Social problems in community are mainly solved through the people’s mediation and for those problems that cannot be solved, joint mediation information management system will distribute them relevant departments or the streets according to different categories, and the flat or joint management will replace multi-level progressive solving method. Yichang Municipal Comprehensive Management Office works out different resolving procedures based on the nature of social problems, and in terms of the working hours in solving social problems, such as administrative approval, law and regulations, regular handling procedures reported by 34 departments are compressed, and 351 resolving procedures are retransformed. Administrative approval working time is reduced from original average 12.1 days to 7 days, and average 51.1 days shorten to 17.4 days in the category of laws and regulations, the time of regular handling procedures shorten to 9 days from the original average 18.8 days, which improves the efficiency of resolving problems.
Mediation Promotes Social Justice
How to make people feel just in mediating problems? In Yichang City, priority goes to mediation, especially legal mediation, and full plays have been given to the people’s mediation, administrative mediation and judicial mediations, thus to promote social justice. In the process of mediation on medical disputes, traffic accidents and litigation, etc., a third party will be chosen to deal with the affairs. Yichang Municipal Mediation Office of Road Traffic Accident takes the lead in promoting the joint mediation system, and has successfully mediated over 3,000 traffic accident and injury compensation cases, with the success rate of 98%. While the Mediation Committee of Medical Treatment Dissension has solved more than 200 medical disputes, the rate of satisfaction is 100%, which played a positive role in promoting social safety and harmony. (Reporter: Jin Guiman, Correspondents: Li Jiazi, Yu Lei)