View from the district People's Council meeting

(Baonghean) - Questioning and answering activities at People's Council sessions are regulated in Article 61 of the Law on Organization of People's Councils and People's Committees in 2003. Implementing the provisions of the law, in recent times, People's Councils at district level have made many innovations in questioning and answering activities in a practical and effective manner, contributing to enhancing the role and power of local elected bodies.

Directly following the question and answer sessions at the recent meetings of some district-level People's Councils, the most obvious thing to note is that localities have paid attention to preparing quality questions and answers, focusing on issues that are "close to home" for each locality. For example, in Vinh City, it is urban management, environmental sanitation; resolving old collective housing areas; food safety and hygiene management; quality management, prices of medicines and private medical practice; socialization of education... Or at the People's Council of Dien Chau district, it is the implementation of rice crop insurance policy; policy to support damage caused by natural disasters in agricultural production; the issue of farmers abandoning their fields; resolving land backlog; traffic security and order on National Highway 1 and National Highway 7, the intersection in Dien Chau town. Or at the People's Council of Thanh Chuong district, it is the encroachment on traffic safety corridors; the issue of low-quality rural power grid systems; The situation of violations of security, order and social safety is increasing....

Guest delegates participated in questioning at the meeting of Dien Chau District People's Council.

In general, the issues raised by the district People's Council for consideration at the question-and-answer session were all explained by the People's Committee and specialized agencies at the district level, clarifying the current situation, causes, and solutions. In particular, at the question-and-answer session of the Vinh City People's Council at the 7th session held at the end of December 2013, it can be said that it was quite lively, frank, and responsible. There were issues such as urban order management, which had 8 delegates of the City People's Council directly questioning. Besides sharing with the City People's Committee because urban order is a difficult issue, the delegates also said that the weakness in urban management in recent times was due to the lack of determination and specificity in implementation from the city to the wards and communes; therefore, it was suggested that the city should have stronger solutions to restore urban order and civilization in a sustainable direction, while at the same time directing, organizing, and resolutely resolving "black spots" in the city. After the questions from the delegates, to continue to "heat up" the questioning atmosphere, and at the same time to clarify the issues that the delegates of the City People's Council have not mentioned. The chairman of the session also asked questions to clarify the responsibilities and state management roles of the City People's Committee and specialized departments and offices in ensuring urban order and environmental sanitation in the past time, thereby having more practical and effective solutions, and at the same time, it is necessary to clearly identify that this is the responsibility of the entire political system and the people involved; have a clear mechanism for handling responsibilities for the Party Committees and authorities of wards and communes and the responsibilities of the heads of Party Committees and authorities at the grassroots level...

Obviously, the questioning and answering activities at the district-level People's Council have also put on the agenda "big" issues and "clarified" the issues that are being raised. From his practical activities, Mr. Truong Hong Phuc - Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Do Luong district, affirmed: "Objectively assessing, the questioning and answering activities at the district People's Council forum in the past time have been very practical, limiting many concerns among the people due to the issues raised for questioning, clarifying the responsibilities of sectors, levels, and units, on that basis to overcome weaknesses and shortcomings. Those issues in Do Luong are the slow progress of granting Land Use Right Certificates and implementing some construction projects in the area; the issue of low quality of medical examination and treatment and medical ethics in some medical facilities...".

In contrast to the question and answer activities at the session, which can be said to be of quite good quality, such as in Vinh City, Do Luong..., in some district-level People's Councils, this activity has not met the requirements, mainly only explaining each issue raised by the People's Council from the government and specialized departments. This makes the question and answer activities of the People's Councils of some districts boring, there are no questions from the People's Council delegates, except for a few opinions from the session chair. For example, at the 8th session of the Thanh Chuong District People's Council held at the end of December 2013, questions were raised about the encroachment and re-encroachment of traffic safety corridors on national highways and provincial roads; and market-holding on the roadway and sidewalk.

This issue actually occurs quite a lot on the roads, making people upset and becoming a "hot" issue in the locality, but at the question-and-answer session on this content, no delegate questioned the Head of the District Department of Industry and Trade. Similarly, at the question-and-answer session of the Dien Chau District People's Council at the 8th session, a series of issues were put on the agenda such as the issue of resolving land backlog, insurance for rice crops, agricultural support policies, etc., but no delegate questioned, except for 2 guest delegates and 2 delegates who chaired the session. This makes the question-and-answer activities at the district-level People's Council session not high. Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhan - Vice Chairwoman of the Yen Thanh District People's Council also admitted: The question-and-answer activities at the district People's Council in general are not really good, not meeting the requirements.

It is argued that the effectiveness of questioning and answering questions depends on many factors, especially the sense of responsibility, capacity, level of awareness of the delegates and the executive role of the session chair. Meanwhile, the People's Council delegates are still heavily structured, of low quality, lacking understanding of the Party's guidelines, policies, the State's laws and the local situation; there are still quite a number of People's Committee members in the People's Council; full-time activities are still too few, especially in the People's Council committees. This affects the quality and effectiveness of questioning at some sessions due to the capacity of the People's Council delegates; on the other hand, the majority of delegates work part-time, many of whom hold important positions in the executive body, so they are respectful, afraid of conflicts, and often do not express their opinions in the activities of the People's Council. In fact, we learned that at the district-level People's Council, there are still many delegates who have not demonstrated their role in questioning at the session, and there are delegates who do not express their opinions and question for the entire term.

Therefore, the District People's Council needs to promote its responsibility and truly worry about improving the quality of activities within its functions and authority, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of local elected bodies. To bring about quality questioning and answering activities, the District People's Council must prepare and select key, truly outstanding and pressing contents that are of interest to the majority of voters to question at the session. This is the most important step, deciding the success of the questioning session.

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