How can the straw burning ban dilemma be solved? These methods are worth trying
Among the deputies to the People's Congress of Shangshui County, Henan Province, Guo Fenghua, Party branch secretary of Beiyue Village, Baishi Town, is a truly formidable woman. Now 50 years old, Guo Fenghua has served as a village cadre for 10 years and as village Party branch secretary for 6 years. Beiyue Village, where she works, comprises 6 natural villages with a population of more than 4,500, making it the largest administrative village in Baishi Town.
With a large village, a big population, complicated affairs and heavy tasks, the village cadres in the past were unable to cope, and their work was often passive. In the spring of 2010, Guo Fenghua was elected Party branch secretary by all the Party members in the village. After 6 years of solid work, Guo Fenghua has become a good village official whom local cadres and residents praise whenever her name comes up.
What kind of village cadre is a good cadre? The villagers' answer is particularly plain: a village official who can win everyone's admiration is a good village official. This admiration comes both from a cadre's quality and conduct and from their work style and methods. Over the past 6 years, everything Guo Fenghua has done has won the trust and admiration of the villagers in just this way.
Quite apart from anything else, let us look only at the annual "three summers" burning ban and "three autumns" burning ban work in Beiyue Village over these 6 years: year after year the village has had "zero fires," achieving a work target that several previous male branch secretaries had all failed to achieve. You should know that Beiyue Village is no ordinary village, but a large village with more than 4,000 people and more than 6,000 mu of arable land. How on earth did Guo Fenghua accomplish this seemingly impossible task?
In the past, rural family planning work was regarded by grassroots cadres as "the number one difficulty under heaven." Today, the straw burning ban has become "the number one difficulty under heaven" in rural work in the eyes of rural cadres. Although Party committees and governments at all levels have adopted strong measures and invested large amounts of manpower, material resources and financial resources, and although village-stationed cadres and village and group cadres have year after year done their duty and endured hardship for the burning ban, ensuring that not a single fire breaks out is still extremely difficult. To ensure that not a single fire breaks out across more than 6,000 mu of straw is even more difficult.
To this end, Guo Fenghua led the members of the "two committees" to inspect carefully, discuss repeatedly and think hard. In the end they reached a consensus: the main reason villagers burn straw is that the wheat stubble left by combine harvesters is too long, and large amounts of straw cannot be handled, which directly affects timely sowing. Only by solving this key problem could the straw burning ban work be done relatively well. Having understood the root of the matter, after becoming village Party branch secretary, during the first "three summers" burning ban period, Guo Fenghua adopted 4 effective measures in a targeted way. First, step up publicity. That summer, the village posted more than 300 publicity slogans, hung 50 cross-street banners, played recorded speeches on the straw burning ban 3 times a day, and signed straw burning ban contracts with more than 1,000 households. Second, divide 30 Party members, village cadres and village-stationed cadres into 10 burning-ban squads, organize patrols according to designated responsibility areas, and set up 3 straw burning ban command shelters. Wang Jianfeng, the leader assigned to the spot, village-stationed cadre Yang Chunzhi and Guo Fenghua worked together and were responsible for command, supervision, patrols and handling problems arising in the burning ban work. Third, set up straw purchasing points. At that time, town Party committee secretary Bi Yanzong and town mayor Zhang Hui personally signed a straw purchasing contract with Luohe Yinge Paper Mill, having the paper mill directly set up 6 straw purchasing points in Baishi Town, and Beiyue Village secured the establishment of one purchasing point. By selling each mu of straw to the purchasing point, villagers could earn 120 yuan. Who would not do something that turns waste into treasure? The masses' enthusiasm for the burning ban was stirred up all at once. Fourth, strictly control the harvest. The village stipulated that combine harvesters without fire extinguishers were not allowed to operate, combine harvesters without crushers were not allowed to operate, and that wheat stubble after harvesting was not allowed to exceed 15 cm. The burning-ban squads were responsible for measuring the wheat stubble left by each combine harvester and strictly checking each one.
No matter how good the work rules are, cadres still need to lead by example and take the lead in putting them into action. During the tense half-month burning ban work, Guo Fenghua stood guard day and night on the harvest front line, and her originally fair face was tanned dark. Under Guo Fenghua's leadership, through the joint efforts of all the village's Party members, village-stationed cadres and village and group cadres, the whole village had no fire at all during the "three summers" burning ban work for the first time, and was commended in a circular by the town Party committee and government.
In the burning ban work of the following years, Guo Fenghua also stood ready and did not dare slack off in the slightest. During this year's "three summers" burning ban work, Guo Fenghua worked despite illness, and sometimes when a high fever became unbearable she asked the village doctor to come to the command shelter to give her an IV drip. Over half a month, Guo Fenghua, as before, stood guard day and night on the burning ban front line and did not go home to sleep even once. During a nighttime inspection, Baishi Town Party committee secretary Bi Yanzong found Guo Fenghua receiving an IV drip in the command shelter. Moved, he asked Guo Fenghua to go home and rest for two days to cure her illness, but Guo Fenghua refused. She said: "Now is the critical period for the burning ban. I must stick to the front line no matter what, and ensure that not a single fire breaks out in the whole village."
Guo Fenghua served as village Party branch secretary for 6 years, and for 6 years the straw burning ban work had "zero fires," making her a model for the whole town to learn from.