In the State’s history, Nadapuram will perhaps be marked mainly for the incidents of political and communal violence which took place in the last decade.
But unbeknown to most is that the Nadapuram grama panchayat has been putting up a good performance in developmental initiatives.
When the State government’s awards for the best panchayats were announced on Friday, Nadapuram won ‘the award for the best panchayat in the district’ for the seventh consecutive time.
Panchayat president Soopy Narikkatteri told The Hindu that violence in the area was a challenge, but this had not affected the welfare activities taken up.
“When it comes to any developmental or welfare programme in the panchayat, all of the political parties come together forgetting their differences. Much of the success story of Nadapuram is owing to this cooperation,” he says.
The service delivery for the common people has been one of the highlights of Nadapuram’s performance.
“We have managed to deliver all services in a time-bound manner, which has given us the much-needed connect with the people in the area,” he said.
Tarring of roads
Another achievement has been the tarring of all roads having a minimum width of 4 metre. He says the indoor stadium which was constructed at a cost of Rs.3 crore makes Nadapuram the only panchayat with such a facility of its own.
Other notable initiatives include a mini-industrial estate and a wedding hall.
“One of our focus areas was garbage disposal. In the past decade, that has been one problem putting administrators in a spot. The garbage treatment plant at Kallachi, which was set up three years ago, solved this problem to a large extent,” Mr. Soopy said. Most of the projects were possible only due to the sourcing of external funds.
“The grama panchayat funds are insufficient to carry out most of the intended activities. So we aggressively sourced funds from various Central government agencies. Also, tax collection has been strict,” he said.
The panchayat had also won the President’s Nirmal Gram Puraskarand the District Collector’s award in the past years.
