To mark its second anniversary, the LDF-led Kozhikode district panchayat will roll out 50 innovative development and welfare projects by December 31.
This includes generating 47kW of solar power, developing the Child and Adolescent Care Centre at Puzhakkattiri to provide Ayurvedic treatment and rehabilitation to differently-abled students and Akasha Ganga rainwater harvesting project, setting up multi-crore sewerage treatment plants, and establishing an organic fertilizer factory.
Aiming for the Sun?
At a news conference here on Tuesday, district panchayat president Babu Parassery claimed that Kozhikode district panchayat would become the first local body in the country to produce the highest quantity of solar power energy. With the commissioning of the project in April, over 40 schools, the Kozhikode district panchayat office, the district hospital at Vadakara, the district Ayurveda hospital, the district homoeopathy hospital, some farms at Koothali, Perambra, Puthuppadi, Thikkodi and Chathamangalam would be linked to solar power. This would entail annual savings in power bills of about ₹1.50 crore to the Kerala State Electricity Board, Mr. Parassery said.
He said that the anniversary celebrations would take place on Friday with Excise and Labour Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan inaugurating the programme at Nalanda Auditorium. An exclusive website of the Kozhikode district panchayat would be launched on the occasion, besides felicitating A. Pradeepkumar and M.K. Muneer, legislators of Kozhikode North and South respectively, and State Sports Council president T.P. Dasan and seminar on various topics such as agriculture and social welfare.
In the last two years, Mr. Parassery said, the district panchayat had taken several schemes aimed at the development of various sectors especially in the education and health sectors.
A mobile application that allowed parents to track the educational progress of their wards and interact with school authorities would be launched in this connection.
In association with the Department of Education, the local body would set up three centres at Vadakara , Kozhikode and Thamarassery to coach exceptional high school and higher secondary school students to appear in civil services examinations. The success of the Vijayotsavam project that aimed at increasing the pass percent in SSLC examinations has prompted the local body to extend the scheme to lower primary and upper primary schools, Mr. Parassery said.
Over 1,200 patients were getting benefit out of the Snehasparsham project being implemented with cooperation of the people. The district panchayat had been able to mobilise ₹6.64 crore during the fund-collection drive on November 12 and 27 last year.
In alliance with the Department of Tourism, the district panchayat had plans to organise international kayaking competitions in the hilly regions of Kodenchery, Chakkitappara and Tiruvambady, which became popular in the last few years, the panchayat president added.
