Rural development programmes launched in the village to mark this achievement
Belapu Gram Panchayat in Udupi district has earned the rare distinction of being included in one of the lessons in Social Science textbook for Class 5 brought out by the State Government.
A function was held to commemorate this achievement and to launch a few rural development programmes here.
President of Belapu Gram Panchayat Deviprasad Shetty said there was chronic water shortage in the panchayat 12 years ago. In order to overcome this, the panchayat spent Rs. 55 lakh under various schemes such as Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme and Swajaladhara Scheme.
It dug seven wells and supplied water from there to all houses through pipelines. Wells were also dug in Ashraya colonies.
All houses in the panchayat had toilets. Trash cans had been put in all important places to collect garbage. It was among the first panchayats in the district to have installed a solid waste management plant. The garbage was converted into manure through this plant. Four new transformers were installed in order to do away with the problem of low voltage which used to cause a lot of problems to the farmers. The funds made available by schemes including the Swacha Grama Yojane and Suvarna Grama Yojane had been used for constructing ring roads and connecting roads in the village.
Poor people had been provided houses under the Ashraya Housing Scheme, Ambedkar Housing Scheme and Indira Awaas Yojna. Unemployed people had been provided with employment under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
A milk union had been formed to help dairy farmers. Rainwater harvesting was encouraged and check dams had been built to recharge ground water, Mr. Shetty said.
MLA Lalaji Mendon said that a pre-university college would be opened here shortly. A degree college would come up in Kaup in August. He lauded the solid waste management plant set up by the panchayat.
The panchayat had also constructed an Ambedkar Bhavan at a cost of Rs. 10 lakh, he said.
