Forty-two Members of Children’s Parliament (Bala Panchayat) from 16 schools from 16 villages and also 16 Prime Ministers met the District Collector (In charge) C. Prakasam on Sunday.
Others who had accompanied the Bala Panchayat were three Ministers for Internal Security, five Education Ministers and two Ministers for the Welfare of Physically Challenged.
The Parliamentarians from Bala Panchayats hailing from Kelamangalam and Shoolagiri Panchayat Unions submitted a petition consisting of 21 resolutions passed in their Bala Panchayats during their meeting with the Collector In charge.
For the first time the members of the Bala Panchayats met the District Collector, an initiative mooted as per the advise of the Minister for Municipal Administration and Rural Development recently.
As per the Minister’s advise, the members of Bala Panchyats will meet the District Collector once in a month and air their grievances through resolutions passed at their Parliaments.
The initiative will help personality development and leadership quality among the children.
As many as 170 Children’s Parliaments were in established in Krishnagiri district alone. As many as 9000 Children’s Parliaments’ were established across the state and are functioning well.
The Children’s Parliament will meet once in a month, discussing common issues, especially issues that affect the development of the children in their jurisdiction, passed resolutions demanding the district administration to fulfil their demands. Such parliaments were presided over by the concerned Prime Ministers’.
The MPs team met the Collector In charge along with the District-level and Panchayat Union-level Conveners and also Coordinators of UNICEF. The 21 demands in the form of resolutions passed at the Children’s Parliament includes additional buildings for Anganwadis, Compound Walls for Schools, Sanitary and Drinking water facilities for schools, bus stops, commissioning of water tanks, establishing of libraries, play grounds and also repairing of leaking roofs of the 40 houses in Thimmathottanahalli villages etc.
Speaking to the Members of Parliaments from Children’s Parliament, Mr. C. Prakasam, Collector In charge appealed the MPs to cooperate with the district administration to prevent child marriages, child workers, planting of more trees to improve the green cover and also prevent the evil of female infanticide/foeticide.
The resolutions adopted in the Children’s Parliament were submitted to the District Collector In charge by the concerned Prime Ministers.
Bhavani, Prime Minister of Gamonthotti Village Parliament was a student from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, who has toured the Indian Parliament and met the MPs in New Delhi recently.
Mr. K.Y. Babu, District Coordinator, UNICEF and officials from Education Department participated in the meeting.
