Gandhi Grama Puraskar for 5 GPs in DK

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Oct 01, 2019: ’Gandhi Grama Puraskar’  for the year 2018-19 is awarded to five gram panchayats in Dakshina Kannada district. The award will be given at Bengaluru on October 2 and comprises Rs 5 lakh and a citation.

The selected gram panchayats are Madanthyaru in Belthangady taluk, Kalmadka in Sullia, Kallamundkooru in Mangaluru, Kutrupadi in Puttur taluk and Vitlapadnooru in Bantwal taluk.

In Karnataka, there are over 6,000 gram panchayats. Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department had invited applications from these gram panchayats for the ‘Gandhi Grama Puraskar.’

The panchayats had to fill questions for 150 marks online through the ‘Panchatantra’ software. It had to be endorsed by the panchayat president and the PDO. The endorsements were verified later. After scrutiny, names of the three highest scoring gram panchayats in each taluk were shortlisted and sent to the zilla panchayat CEO. A district-level committee was set up to visit the gram panchayats and verify the information furnished. The committee was asked to recommend one GP in each taluk for the award. Accordingly, gram panchayats were selected for the award, said sources.

The questions were divided into several segments – resource mobilisation, tax collection, utilisation of grants including under 14th Finance Commission, implementation of MGNREGS, supply of drinking water, street lights, housing schemes, sanitation and measures for disposal of solid waste, holding regular gram sabha meetings, novel and innovative initiatives, quality of life based on children’s health, revision of taxes as per the government guidelines, toilets in all the households and community toilets.

The award money could be used for various development works of the respective gram panchayat, sources said.

Kutrupadi Gram Panchayat is receiving the award for the second time. Kalmadka GP had brought out an application with comprehensive details on individuals in the gram panchayat jurisdiction.

The app is seeded to the phone number of the head of the family. It also provides details on facilities availed from the GP, electricity connections and other details. The app is on a pilot mode for the last one year, said PDO Praveen Kumar.

Vitlapadnooru GP has been successful in collecting 96% of the tax. It had also given priority for construction of vented dam and desilting the vented dams.