At a time when big cities are erecting luxurious court buildings to showcase the "rule of law," a county in Northwest China's Shanxi Province seems to have come closer to sorting out legal priorities.

Qinyuan County has set up over 200 supervisory stations in villages since last September to deal with administration and law enforcement irregularities.

Co-sponsored by the county's bureau of justice and Party disciplinary units, these stations handle complaints from local farmers and have rectified many irregularities in law and governance, ad hoc charges in particular, according to local sources.

The stations, manned with legal professionals and staff from law enforcement units,  also explain the law and government policies to farmers, and help them file suits when they get involved in civil disputes.

Although China already has more than 2,000 county-level legal aid agencies to help the disadvantaged, Qinyuan's initiative has blazed a new trail.

The supervisory stations have the power to redress promptly the improper deeds of village cadres, whom farmers otherwise have no way to challenge.

Traditionally deemed as "so far away from the heaven that the emperor cannot attend to them," villages often have to put up with wrongdoings by unchecked local powers, despite the progress in administrative and judicial improvements nationwide.

In some places, village heads have cancelled villagers' land-use contracts because of personal grudges, or have given priority to paving roads over the reaping of ripening wheat, not to mention the levying of unwarranted fines or even the infliction of physical abuse.

Even central and local governments'  policies are sometimes distorted to allow the implementation of the wishes of vested interests.

Unlike many superficial vows to clean up local administration, the creation of village supervisory stations seems to go to the roots of grassroots irregularities.
The measure substantially reduces the likelihood of local despots running amok at the expense of public interests, rather than forcing farmers to go through lengthy administrative and judicial procedures for remedy when injustices occur.

For farmers, to challenge local power often requires repeated visits to higher authorities in town, with the loss of income and even threats of retaliation. A process so difficult that many would rather swallow their grievances than seek justice.

The initiative of Qinyuan does not work merely to rein in power. The explanatory work of village stations points out tactful ways to avoid misunderstandings and smooth the process of rural development.

Inadequate knowledge and conflict of interests sometimes turn farmers against some government policies.

Three farmers in Northwestern China's Shaanxi Province committed suicide last month after village cadres ordered them to uproot the grain they had sowed in the village's woodlands planted to check sandstorms.

There is no evidence to indicate that the farmers were maltreated, although the heads of the village and the township were sacked later.

The nurturing of a sound social environment is key to the future of rural areas, where two-thirds of the country's population live.

While cities get increasingly wealthy, development of many rural regions is curbed by onerous levies, poor education and medical service, inconsistent local policies, and worse still, ignorance of the law as a result of lack of supervisory guidance.

The rural land-use reform launched two decades ago enabled farmers to better feed and clothe themselves. Now improvements on social fronts are needed to help farmers join the nation's move towards a better-off tomorrow.

Eradicating abuse of power and other grassroots irregularities and nurturing a law-abiding atmosphere are primary jobs that will help push the social development in rural areas.

Despite the top leadership's apparent concern for rural development and a string of supportive policies to this effect, rural social progress cannot do without down-to-earth endeavours at the grassroots level.

The strenuous work needed to build up the rural social environment might be less eye-catching than the construction of urban highways and skyscrapers, but it is necessary if we are to realize the nation's goal of balanced and sustainable progress.