Residents in 404 village panchayats across the district took stock of the development works taken up in their villages during the grama sabha meetings held on the occasion of Gandhi Jayandhi on Wednesday.
The meetings discussed a range of subjects including maintenance of solar power sets established under the Chief Minister’s Special Green House Project, maintenance of solar streetlights installed in the villages, maintenance and renovation of rural public buildings, implementation of self-sufficiency scheme, creation of rainwater harvesting structures, solid waste management, allotment of works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, formation of village poverty eradication societies, and prevention of child marriage.
Collector Jayashree Muralidharan, who participated in the grama sabha meeting, at Podavur called upon the villagers to participate wholeheartedly in the greening drive and shun use of non-degradable plastic products. She urged them to utilise the MGNREGS to remove silt and deepen village ponds and irrigation channels to improve their agricultural prospects.
The government, she pointed out, was extending grants to individuals for constructing household toilets and urged rural folks to take advantage of the scheme. Villagers who are yet to enrol their names in the voters' list could utilise the opportunity to do so now during the current summary revision of electoral rolls, she said. She felicitated Kaliyamurthy, a noon meal organiser, for taking up a campaign against the use of non-degradable plastics in the village.