The State-level Panchayat Day celebrations will be held on April 23 and 24 at the Guajarati Hall on the Kozhikode beach.
Minister for Panchayats and Social Welfare M.K. Muneer told reporters here on Friday that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy would inaugurate the programme at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Dr. Muneer would preside over the function.
Around 1,000 delegates from all over the State, including representatives from all the grama panchayats, block panchayats and district panchayats in the State, representatives from the Panchayat Deputy Director offices and Assistant Director offices, Performance Audit centres, and other related institutions would take part in the programme.
Dr. Muneer would inaugurate the seminar on ‘Central schemes and local self-governing bodies’ after the inaugural session of the programme. There would be variety entertainment programmes after the seminar.
A discussion on ‘Problems faced by local governments and solutions’ to be held on April 24 would be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran. Speaker G. Karthikeyan would inaugurate the valedictory function in the afternoon. The Swaraj Trophy for the best local self governing bodies in the State and awards for grama panchayats that implemented the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme effectively would be distributed on the occasion, the Minister said.
The Minister said that Pulamanthol grama panchayat in Malappuram had been selected as the best grama panchayat in the State for the Swaraj Trophy. Vamanapuram had been selected as the best block panchayat and Alappuzha the best district panchayat. Sreekrishnapuram, Koppam (Palakkad); Ponmundam (Malappuram); Nadapuram, Balusseri (Kozhikode); Vythiri (Wayanad); Chembilodu, Eranholi (Kannur); and Madikkai (Kasargod) were the grama panchayats that came first and second respectively in the district level. Second prizes were not given to any panchayats in some districts since none met the criteria for the award.
The best grama panchayat and block panchayat would get Rs.25 lakh as a special aid. The panchayat that topped in each district would get Rs.10 lakh while the second prize winner would get Rs.5 lakh as special project aid.
All the winners would get the Swaraj Trophy and citation also, he said.
