A few days ago, the reporter learned from the Tianjin Municipal People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the Municipal People's Procuratorate) that in 2023, the city's procuratorial organs will collect a total of 1,269 clues on public interest litigation cases, file 1,263 cases of case filing and supervision, formulate and issue 1,042 pre-trial procuratorial suggestions, and file 35 public interest lawsuits, handling a number of major typical cases with national influence. It has played a positive role in promoting the protection of environmental resources, food and drug safety, the construction of a safe Tianjin, and the protection of people's livelihood rights and interests, and has defended the public interest with the power of the procuratorate, giving full play to the political significance, institutional advantages and governance value of the procuratorial public interest litigation system.
Plug small loopholes and promote a big change in the "green tax system".
On March 26, the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate) and the four units in the jurisdiction jointly signed the "Working Rules on the Establishment of the Joint Conference System for Environmental Protection Tax Collection and Management Cooperation (Hexi District)" and held the first joint meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to build a platform for information exchange, strengthen the leverage of the green tax system through multi-party linkage, and leverage the green transformation of economic development with the ecological leverage of the "green tax system".
The joint meeting arose from an administrative public interest litigation case in the court last year. In the performance of its duties, the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate found that some units under construction in a certain district had not paid the environmental protection tax for construction dust, so it accepted the clues of public interest litigation on October 26 last year and filed a case for investigation, and issued a pre-trial procuratorial suggestion to the tax authorities in accordance with the law. In December of the same year, the tax department replied in writing to the procuratorate, fully adopting the content of the procuratorial suggestion. After the inventory and the payment of environmental protection tax of more than 40 yuan, the environmental protection tax collection of projects under construction in the district has been fully covered.
When handling a public interest lawsuit involving the non-agricultural conversion of cultivated land, the prosecutor of the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate conducted an on-site investigation. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Cao Guifen, a member of the party group and deputy procurator general of the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate, said that after the environmental fee was changed to tax, some enterprises "took advantage of loopholes" and took advantage of the information asymmetry of tax authorities to evade taxes. Procuratorial organs give full play to the procuratorial supervision function of public interest litigation, take big data thinking as the traction, open up information sharing channels as the key, give full play to the functional role and professional advantages of each unit, jointly improve the coordination mechanism for the collection of environmental protection tax, strengthen the coordination between public interest litigation procuratorial supervision and administrative law enforcement, and help the tax authorities plug small loopholes in taxation. By providing tax source information, we can solve the problem of collection and payment, strengthen the management of litigation sources, and encourage enterprises to "discharge less pollutants and no pollutants".
Cao Guifen
【Typical Significance】
Actively perform the procuratorial function of public interest litigation, build and improve the working mechanism of multi-departmental linkage and cooperation, unite the joint efforts of tax inspection, and promote the construction of a green tax system, effectively giving full play to the dual effect of protecting state-owned property and serving green development.
A small feature solves a big problem for the visually impaired
A few days ago, the reporter met Wang Hui at the Heart Light Barrier-free Communication Center, and he was discussing with visually impaired friends and technicians how to further optimize the voice stop sign function of Tianjin Public Transport App. He told reporters that it was just a small function added, but it solved the big problem of travel for the visually impaired.
Wang Hui said that at present, there are more than 30,000 visually impaired people in the city, and buses are an important means of transportation for them. Because the bus entry information is mainly obtained with the help of hearing, the voice announcement outside the bus has become a necessary condition for the visually impaired to travel on the bus. Some visually impaired people missed one trip after another because some buses did not have an outside voice station. The problem has been a long time, some bus lines have outside the bus voice station, but due to complaints from residents near the bus station was forced to cancel, the Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission, as the administrative authority, has also carried out rectification many times, but the related problems have not been completely solved.
In addition to being a visually impaired, Wang Hui also has multiple identities such as a lawyer, the chairman of the blind association, and a volunteer of "Benefiting the Public", and continues to pay attention to this issue. In 2022, together with his visually impaired friends, he reported this issue to the Disabled Persons' Federation and the procuratorate.
After accepting the clues of the case, the Municipal People's Court launched an investigation, and on October 8, 2022, it filed an administrative public interest lawsuit. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Tianjin Barrier-free Environment Construction Management Measures", "Tianjin Passenger Public Transport Management Regulations" and "Tianjin Barrier-free Design Standards", we will carry out consultations with the Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission, and organize the participation of Tianjin Public Transport Group and Tianjin Disabled Persons' Federation to fully discuss the facts of the damage to the rights and interests of the visually impaired and the rectification plan for the problems, and invite volunteers from the "Benefiting the Public" procuratorial cloud platform to participate in the whole process and actively explore solutions. After consultation, the rectification idea of taking into account the rights and interests of the people around the bus line and the visually impaired was determined, and the existing "Tianjin Public Transport App" was upgraded to increase the voice station function.
On May 21, 2023, the "National Day for the Disabled", the Municipal People's Court and multiple departments jointly carried out the field test and experience activity of the voice station function of the "Tianjin Public Transport App". After experience, the participants generally reported that the voice station function of the "Tianjin Public Transport App" is very convenient, and the system will vibrate and loop the voice broadcast when the bus enters the station, which can help them take the bus accurately and conveniently.
The case was jointly rated by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the China Disabled Persons' Federation as a typical case of public interest litigation for the construction of a barrier-free environment.
When handling a public interest lawsuit involving the visually impaired, the procurator of the Municipal People's Court conducted an on-site investigation.
【Typical Significance】
It provides an efficient and convenient solution for the protection of the rights and interests of the visually impaired, takes into account the basic demands of the general population, and realizes the "suitable for the elderly" while "helping the disabled".
A small clue to protect the safety of grain production
"Uncle Zhang, according to national laws and policies, cultivated land should be used for grain production, especially if your family's land is permanent basic farmland, you have to grow food. ”
"Then what do you say about the turf I planted now? Shovel it directly? Do you care about the money spent in the early stage? Besides, how much money do you have to grow food?"
"Uncle, don't worry, you won't suffer financial losses. You can continue to plant the existing turf, and when this batch of turf is harvested, we will cultivate the grain. Now the national policy encourages the planting of food, there are corresponding subsidies, and now the income of planting turf is decreasing year by year, let's calculate together, which kind of food crops are more profitable, okay?"
The conversation took place last summer in a village in Jinghai District, where a prosecutor took the hand of an elderly man in the village and worked earnestly on his job.
In April 2023, the prosecutor of the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate learned during the investigation that some villagers in Jinghai District used cultivated land to plant turf. This is not uncommon, but it has not been taken seriously. Out of professional sensitivity, the prosecutor thought that this clue might be related to food security, so he reported it to the leader as soon as possible. The chief procurator in charge attached great importance to it and demanded that the rural farmland be inspected on the spot to ascertain the facts of the case.
Prosecutors visited dozens of towns and villages in Jinghai District, went deep into the fields to look for clues about planting turf on cultivated land, and learned that the time for planting turf on cultivated land can be traced back to 2015. Because of the short harvest time and high returns, at first, some enterprises contracted land to plant turf, and later the villagers saw the benefits and followed the planting, resulting in the spread of non-agricultural and non-grain cultivated land.
After consulting with relevant administrative organs and agronomic experts, the prosecutor found that the harm of planting turf on cultivated land is far from being as simple as cultivating grain, and its biggest destructive is that each harvest of turf will be harvested and sold together with the top layer of soil. The turf matures three to four times a year, which means that the soil layer is stripped three to four times a year, causing great damage to the quality of the soil. The Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate immediately launched a public interest litigation investigation and set up a case-handling team with the chief procurator in charge as the chief prosecutor.
In addition to Jinghai District, will other agriculture-related areas in Tianjin have the same problem? By constructing a "satellite remote sensing-based supervision model for the occupation of cultivated land for planting turf", the procurator used big data to determine the plots of occupied cultivated land for planting turf, fixed the evidence, and then visited them one by one to find out the facts.
In December last year, at a hearing on the supervision of the rectification effect of illegally occupying farmland for planting turf, several village secretaries excitedly briefed the procurator on the situation of land restoration: "All the 'problematic land' in our village has been restored! ”
Under the promotion of the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate and the Jinghai, Wuqing and other district courts, all agriculture-related areas have included the issue of occupying cultivated land for planting turf as an important part of the "field chief system" for cultivated land protection.
【Typical Significance】
Food security is the lifeblood of people's livelihood and the great power of the country. Cultivated land is the lifeblood of grain production, and guarding the red line of cultivated land is the premise and foundation for ensuring food security, and is the most important matter related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Procuratorial organs have given full play to the role of procuratorial supervision in public interest litigation and performed their duties accurately, guarding the red line of cultivated land and safeguarding food security.
A small speed up to eliminate the hidden danger of safety in mountainous areas
"After living here for decades, when it rains during the flood season, the gravel in the back mountain collapses, and the walls of the house and the outdoor unit of the air conditioner are smashed, so the whole family can only temporarily move to the village committee, which is very inconvenient. Uncle Hu from Lujiayu Village, Xujiatai Town, Jizhou District, pointed to a ditch in front of the house and said, "There was a heavy rainstorm a few days ago, and the river here was full. ”
This is the scene encountered last year when the staff of the First Branch of the Tianjin Municipal People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the First Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate), the Jizhou District People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the Jizhou District People's Court), and the Jizhou Branch of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources came to Lujiayu Village by car to "look back" at the administrative public interest litigation case of geological disasters and potential safety hazards in the mountainous area of Jizhou.
The village faces mountains on both sides, and the grass and trees are lush, but the mountains belong to the dolomite, which is brittle and hard and easy to weather. Once the mountain rocks encounter water, they are more likely to disintegrate, and large and small stones roll down from the mountain, hitting some villagers' houses built against the mountain from time to time, and there are serious safety hazards in people and property, which has always been a problem for the local people and the government.
At the end of 2022, the Tianjin Municipal Audit Bureau relied on the public interest litigation coordination mechanism to transfer the case clues to the Seventh Procuratorate Department of the Municipal People's Court. Clues show that there are potential geological disasters in some mountainous areas of Jizhou, and the affected villagers have not been relocated for a long time, endangering the safety of people's lives and property. The Municipal People's Court immediately launched a three-level linkage mechanism, and the Municipal People's Court supervised the handling of the case, determined the case-handling ideas and governance paths, unified case-handling standards, and followed up and guided the whole process. The First Branch of the Municipal Procuratorate set up a task force, and the Jizhou District Court cooperated. After more than 10 in-depth visits to the mountainous areas, the third-level hospital investigated and collected evidence from all the potential safety hazards one by one, and found out the bottom number.
After investigation, Jizhou District was included in the municipal government's 2019 rectification and upgrading plan for a number of potential safety hazards, in addition to the preventive measures such as engineering management and ecological restoration, there are still 9 12 villagers who have not been relocated. These points all have problems such as large risks and hidden dangers, high difficulty in governance, and many relocation costs.
In order to eliminate potential safety hazards before the flood season and complete the relocation as soon as possible, the procuratorial organs accelerated the progress of the case, and conducted pre-litigation consultations with the planning and capital departments and local governments. The relevant departments have expressed that they should earnestly assume the responsibility of geological disaster prevention and management, make every effort to implement the task of avoiding danger and relocation, and establish and improve a long-term mechanism for the prevention and control of geological disasters.
In order to solve the blockage of the shortage of relocation funds, the Jizhou District Government actively fulfilled its main responsibility, did everything possible to raise funds, and at the same time, organized all towns and towns to implement the relocation tasks in strict accordance with the time node, reversed the construction period, and compacted the responsibilities.
Before the flood season came last year, 9 high-level risk hidden danger points in the mountainous area of Jizhou, a total of 12 villagers, all completed the relocation ahead of schedule. At the same time, the relevant departments have carried out a comprehensive investigation and dynamic monitoring of more than 200 medium and low-risk hidden danger points in the mountainous area of Jizhou, and have taken corresponding preventive measures to prevent the occurrence of geological disasters during the flood season.
【Typical Significance】
The procuratorial organs adhered to the concept of "people first", and promptly urged the administrative organs to relocate and rectify the potential hazards of geological disasters before the flood season, and continued to follow up and supervise during the flood season, so as to realize the active performance of procuratorial duties from the "political perspective and the rule of law". By creating a "three-dimensional linkage" public interest litigation case-handling model, we will accurately urge the administrative organs at the municipal and district levels to form a joint governance force at the first time to effectively protect the safety of people's lives and property.
A small visit to promote the living environment to improve greatly
In January last year, when the chief procurator of the Jinghai District People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the Jinghai District People's Court) visited the grassroots level, he found that the seven or eight sewage wells at the entrance of Jingyi City and Yuzhou Zunfu on Chunxi Road in the jurisdiction were not well drained, and a large amount of domestic sewage mixed with excrement and kitchen waste overflowed, seriously affecting the daily travel of the masses, and this problem has not been solved for three years.
After a preliminary investigation, there are more than 5,000 households in Jingyi City and Yuzhou Zunfu, and the daily sewage discharge is large, and the operating water level of the domestic sewage pipeline in the community is lower than the water level of the sewage treatment facility, resulting in the domestic sewage can not be discharged. It is understood that the supervision and management unit of domestic sewage in Jinghai District is the Jinghai District Urban Management Committee, but the above-mentioned problems existed at the beginning of the construction of the community involved in the case, and the housing and urban-rural development department has not been able to transfer the domestic sewage treatment rights to the urban management department, but the construction supervision unit, that is, the Jinghai District Housing and Construction Committee, is responsible for maintenance and management. In recent years, the district housing and construction department has mainly relied on pumping trucks to pump out the sewage in the well as much as possible, but the next day the domestic sewage will overflow again when the pipeline is full, which fails to fundamentally solve the problem.
In February of the same year, the Jinghai District People's Court filed a case for review in accordance with the law, and the chief procurator of the District People's Court led a team to visit relevant departments for investigation and investigation, actively carried out consultations with functional departments, and organized hearings to clarify the responsibilities of relevant organs, and promote the coordination and cooperation of administrative organs and the performance of their duties.
On March 16 of the same year, the Jinghai District People's Court issued pre-trial procuratorial recommendations to the three administrative organs of water affairs, housing and construction, and sub-district offices, urging them to perform their duties in accordance with the law. After receiving the procuratorial suggestion, the three authorities attached great importance to it and carried out several rounds of research and consultation, and determined that the District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Committee would take the lead in building a new sewage lifting pumping station in the area, and introduce the sewage in the area into the Huajing Sewage Treatment Plant for disposal, and the pumping station would be handed over to the District Water Affairs Bureau and the Urban Management Committee for supervision after it was completed and accepted. After two months, the sewage treatment pumping station and ancillary pipeline facilities costing nearly 10 million yuan have been completed and put into use.
In July last year, the Jinghai District People's Court carried out a "retrospective" and confirmed on the spot that the sewage discharge problem in the community involved in the case had been completely solved, and the living environment of the surrounding residents had been significantly improved.
【Typical Significance】
Focus on the people's livelihood, investigate the problem of improving the living environment that the masses have strongly responded to and have been delayed for a long time, find out the crux of the problem, clarify the controversy and contradiction of the problem, and urge all administrative organs to discuss solutions. Promote "all management" with "self-management", urge relevant functional departments to perform their duties in accordance with the law, and supervise the urgent difficulties and sorrows that have lasted for many years to be thoroughly rectified and resolved, realizing the effective connection between public interest litigation and administrative supervision, and helping to form a new pattern of public interest protection with clear responsibilities, coordinated and orderly, and supervision in place.
Round Table Pie
What kind of supervision and governance functions does procuratorial public interest litigation have?
Cao Guifen, member of the party group and deputy procurator general of the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate:
The procuratorial public interest litigation system is a major institutional arrangement to promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity with a rule of law mindset and a rule of law approach. On the one hand, by giving full play to the advantages of public interest litigation in overall planning and coordination, the connection of administrative supervision functions is smoothed, the regulatory responsibilities of all parties are clarified, the bridge of coordination and cooperation is built, and the joint efforts of comprehensive governance are gathered, so as to improve the overall effectiveness of multi-subject co-governance. On the other hand, on the basis of handling cases well, procuratorial organs have extended their case-handling functions to the field of social governance, excavated the deep-seated reasons for the occurrence and development of cases, realized the management of the source of litigation, promoted the treatment of both the symptoms and the root causes, and achieved the good effect of "handling one case and governing one area".
Liu Donghui, associate professor of the Law School of Tianjin Normal University:
As a major innovative achievement of judicial participation and promotion of national governance, the procuratorial public interest litigation system is China's wisdom and China's plan for public interest judicial protection. As a hearing officer, I have participated in the follow-up observation and hearing of administrative public interest litigation cases handled by the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate, and I have personally experienced that procuratorial public interest litigation has two important significance: one is to promote administration according to law. Through methods such as procuratorial suggestions, consultations, and initiation of lawsuits, procuratorial organs are urging administrative organs to administer in accordance with law, strictly enforce the law, and correct their own mistakes. The second is to safeguard the public interest. Procuratorial organs focus on the pain points of people's livelihood and the difficulties of harm to the public interest, and form a pattern in which administrative organs, social organizations, procuratorial organs, and adjudication organs work together to protect the public interest through civil or administrative public interest litigation.
Liu Donghui
Wang Zhihuan, a volunteer for public welfare activities:
I am a pro bono volunteer and a lawyer. As a volunteer of the "Benefiting the Public" procuratorial cloud platform, I do not have a particularly deep understanding of procuratorial public interest litigation, and it is not known whether the platform can give full play to the role of providing clues and public supervision. Last winter, I participated in the public interest litigation case on farmland protection of the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate, and participated in the procuratorial hearing process, which gave me first-hand experience and a deeper understanding of the procuratorial public interest litigation. I saw the power of public interest litigation supervision as prosecutors went to the fields to conduct field surveys, held hearings, and actually supervised the implementation of each measure, evaluated the results of each implementation, and finally solved the problem.
Wang Zhihuan
How Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Injects "New Momentum" into Social Governance
Cao Guifen, member of the party group and deputy procurator general of the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate:
Since July 2017, under the leadership of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Municipal People's Court, the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate has focused on the root cause of high-quality and efficient public interest litigation procuratorial duties, innovated the five-step work method of "investigation first, case entry, promotion of similar cases, comprehensive management, and experience summary" in procuratorial public interest litigation, and strived to build a new pattern of social governance with multiple interactions, multi-subject participation, and co-governance, co-construction, and sharing, so as to strengthen the people's procuratorate and help implement the "Ten Actions" for Tianjin's high-quality development.
Practicing the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", we took the lead in handling the city's first civil public interest litigation case filed by the procuratorate. Strengthen Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cooperation, lead the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Jinjin procuratorates to sign a procuratorial cooperation mechanism for the protection of the ecological environment and resources in the Daqing River Basin, and actively integrate into the pattern of environmental public welfare protection. Handled the case of Zhang's infringement of Academician Yuan Longping's reputation and honor, and carried forward the core values of socialism. Strictly abide by the red line of cultivated land protection, and urge the administrative organs to effectively solve the problem of "non-agricultural" and "non-grain" cultivated land in the city. Promote the issuance of 9 normative documents by administrative organs, and do a good job in municipal governance.
In order to build a general pattern of public interest protection, the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate has strengthened the team of public interest litigation observers and volunteers for "benefiting the public", and strengthened their role in providing clues, providing professional support, and assisting in case handling. Strengthen exchanges and cooperation through party building and joint construction, mechanism countersigning, etc., build bridges for functional linkage, actively expand cooperation with channels such as the 12315 consumer complaint and reporting hotline, the 12338 women's rights protection hotline, and the 12345 convenience service hotline, strengthen cooperation with administrative organs, social organizations, etc., and gather the joint force of public welfare protection. Broadened the convenient service channel of public interest litigation "shooting", identified the blocking points of social governance from the demands of the masses, focused on people's livelihood concerns, solved the people's urgency, difficulties and expectations, and handled a number of public interest litigation cases involving people's livelihood interests.
Liu Donghui, associate professor of the Law School of Tianjin Normal University:
At present, the public interest litigation cases handled by the procuratorial organs are changing from individual case handling to comprehensive management, from process supervision to source management, and the role of public interest litigation in the management of litigation sources is becoming more and more prominent. It is believed that the advancement of public interest litigation legislation and the deepening of the "procuratorial +" cooperation model will have greater space and advantages in warming the hearts of the people and doing practical things, and improve the level of modernization of urban social governance.
Wang Zhihuan, a volunteer for public welfare activities:
A few days ago, I attended the first joint meeting of environmental protection tax collection at the Second Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate, which opened up new ideas for me to study environmental public interest litigation. The protection of the public interest of the environment should not be limited to litigation, but should be more about prevention. The Joint Mechanism for the Collection of Environmental Protection Tax is an innovative and replicable prevention mechanism.
As representatives of the public interest, procuratorial organs are to take care of matters that no one cares about through their own intervention, promote "all management" with "self-management", innovate mechanisms, and inject new momentum into social governance.
Source: Tianjin Daily