How did obscure Kulgod, in Belagavi district, beat 3.5 lakh gram panchayats across the country to emerge as the best rural local body under the Antyodaya scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development? The answer is simple: Kulgod was not built in a day. It took the concerted effort of officials, panchayat members and enlightened villagers many years to bring it to this pinnacle of development.
“Thankfully, our village has had good officers, who implemented schemes in earnest,” says Govindappa Koppad, former GP member from Kulgod, who is now a zilla panchayat member. “They are serious about their work and realise that they are answerable to the people. That helped us,’’ adds Basavaraj Hegganayak, Taluk Panchayat executive officer.
Back in 2005, officials conducted the first survey of health and hygiene in the village as party of the total sanitation campaign. The results were surprisingly good. Irrigation facilities had reached 97% of the 3,550 hectares of land reducing poverty levels significantly. Over 70% of the dwellings were pucca houses and there were amenities like banks and health centres. Toilet coverage was at 60% above the district average.
Still, the officials focussed on sanitation, drainage, and piped water supply. Construction of low-cost houses and other infrastructure was taken up in phases.
“Now we have three borewells, a pipeline from the Ghataprabha river, a mini-purification unit and an overhead tank with a capacity of 3 lakh litres,” says Mr. Koppad. Self-Help Groups and their bank linkage was promoted, number of students in anganwadis and schools increased and there were doctors in the village hospitaland veterinary treatment centre.
“What works for us is that this GP has just one village,” says Parashuram S.K, Panchayat Development Officer (PDO), who lives in the village and is available to the people at all times.
Two and a half years ago, when ZP CEO R. Ramachandran took charge, he had a lot on his hands. He had to run a district with over 550 GPs and nearly 2,000 villages and hamlets. He used funds as an incentive for better-performing GPs and implemented new projects in villages that welcomed them. This helped officers achieve nearly 100 per cent LPG utilization and 100 per cent toilet construction. The GP also built two community toilet complexes in areas with houses with not enough space for individual toilets. He organised training for GP secretaries and PDOs in computer usage and office maintenance. ``These sessions, along with regular follow up with officers ” “This ensured that our documentation was ahead of other districts,” the CEO says.
Shakuntala Chippalakatti, GP president, says, “Nature has been kind to us. The Ghataprabha flows close by. She supplies our drinking water needs and irrigates our fields. What more can we ask for,” she asks.
Kulgod got 94 out of 100 in an assessment based on 47 parameters, including infrastructure, social, economic and other sectors. In the last few years, the local body in Belagavi district has been included among the panchayats that have won the Gandhi Gram award at the State level.
