Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has lauded the Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat for its effective interventions in various avenues, particularly the education sector.
He was speaking while formally launching two of the local body’s People’s Plan projects, Sarathi and Sargavayana Sampoorna Vayana, here on Monday.
Mr. Vijayan said that the national recognition achieved by the panchayat by winning the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar, instituted by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, was reflective of its performance. The panchayat utilised ₹130 crore for various schemes in the education sector alone, he said.
Under the Sarathi project, the district panchayat provided a school bus each to 26 government high school and higher secondary schools that were managed by the local body.
The Sargavayana Sampoorna Vayana scheme envisaged establishing libraries in all public schools in the district. Having commenced book collection drives in their respective areas, the schools targeted a collection of five lakh books.
The Chief Minister urged the parents-teachers associations (PTA) of each school to undertake the timely maintenance of the buses. He also called for steps to rope in the support of alumni associations to expand the library facilities.
He handed over books that were collected from various sources to the students of the vocational higher secondary schools in Vithura and Kallara, Marayamuttom, Neduveli and Kilimanoor higher secondary schools.
Minister for Local Self-Governments A.C. Moideen presided over the function. V.K. Prasanth, MLA, district panchayat president V.K. Madhu, and Kerala State Planning Board member K.N. Harilal were among those who were present on the occasion.
