A pioneer in innovative welfare schemes, the Ernakulam district panchayat has now become a cut above the rest, after winning yet another award.
The local body, which won several awards over the last five years, has won the prestigious Swaraj Trophy for the best district panchayat, instituted by the State government. The local body pipped Malappuram district panchayath to win the award, which carries a cash prize of Rs.25 lakh.
The secret of success, according to previous president Eldhose Kunnappally, was the combined effort of the ruling front as well as the Opposition. All differences were set aside to take the district panchayat to a new height, he said. “In terms of Plan fund utilisation, we topped the State at 80 per cent. The Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, during his mass contact programme in the district last time, declared a reward of Rs.10 lakh, taking this into consideration,” he said.
Among a host of schemes rolled out by the local body during the previous term, he regards the Sneha Vahanam project, which envisages distribution of tricycles to all differently abled persons in its jurisdiction as one of the most important programmes introduced by the local body. Similarly, it was the first district panchayat in the country to standardise the functioning under the ISO certification programme.
The other major schemes introduced by the local body includes provision of higher education for SC/ST students in foreign universities, distribution of bicycles for SC/ST students at free of cost, Barrier-free programme, the Love My Library programme, which envisages distribution of books for select libraries and the Palkkadal programme to increase the production of milk.
