Four State awards and a coveted national honour, the Eraviperoor grama panchayat has got much to cheer about.
The panchayat won the award for biodiversity conservation instituted by the State Biodiversity Board, sanitation award of the State Sanitation Mission, and the pain and palliative care award of the district panchayat in the past three years.
The Horticulture Department had selected Eraviperoor a model hi-tech green village in recognition of the local body’s green initiatives.
ADVERTISEMENT
To cap it, Eraviperoor has become the first grama panchayat in the country to receive a national award for public administration. Moreover, this is also the maiden public administration award received by an institution or individual from Kerala.
Panchayat president N.Rajeev received the award comprising a purse of Rs.5 lakh, citation, and memento from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“The panchayat has given priority to e-governance at the grassroots level, making local self-governance citizen-centric, efficient, responsive, cost-effective, and result-oriented, thus giving a fillip to rural development,” Mr. Rajeev said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The ISO-certified panchayat disseminates information via SMS alerts and pays honorarium as well as salary of staff via bank accounts. All office records have been digitised and the panchayat launched its one-minute certificate scheme a year ago.”
He said the panchayat’s total waste disposal programme with the support of the Sanitation Mission had received praise from many quarters. Rejuvenation of the Varatter river, a tributary of the Pampa, was another task undertaken by the panchayat in 2013. The local body was running a coaching centre for Civil Service aspirants and yoga centres for villagers.
“The local body has taken up a project to achieve total e-literacy in the panchayat and another mission to document the history of Eraviperoor,” says Mr. Rajeev.
He said Keltron was the technology provider for the e-literacy project.
A plastic recycling unit, health grama sabha, and an eco grama sabha were the other praiseworthy initiatives of the panchayat.
Panchayat president N. Rajeev received award comprising a purse of Rs.5 lakh, citation, and memento from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday.