Ongole: Awards presented to best-performing panchayats

Ongole (Prakasam district) : Prakasam district Collector AS Dinesh Kumar, DPO GV Narayana Reddy, and ZP CEO B Jalireddy presented awards to the best-performing panchayats in the district, and felicitated sarpanches, as part of the celebrations of National Panchayati Raj Day, at Spandana Hall in Ongole on Monday.

Explaining the importance of National Panchayati Raj Day, district panchayat officer GV Narayana Reddy said that this year they are commemorating 30 years of Panchayati Raj in India.

He said that the Central government has been taking many initiatives for strengthening and empowering Panchayati Raj Institutions and increasing the capacity of their representatives to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.

The government is focussing on improving the efficiency, transparency of functioning and accountability of PRIs to contribute towards inclusive development, economic growth and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, he added.

Collector Dinesh Kumar said that the first National Panchayati Day was celebrated on April 24, 2010 and wished all stakeholders in the Panchayat Raj Institutions on the occasion.

Panchayat Raj Awards were announced at national, State, district and mandal levels, based on the performance of the panchayats on sustainable development goals set by the government on nine themes. In Andhra Pradesh, Prakasam is the only district that established a district-level committee with the Collector as the chairman, and DPO, ZP CEO, DCSO, DMHO, PD ICDS, SE RWS&S, SE PR, PD DRDA, PD DWMA and PD Housing as members.

District Project Manager Thota Naga Jyothi and Additional District Project Manager Tammisetty Ramadevi, with the help of the district committee members, validated data from ground level and selected 19 panchayats as poverty-free and enhanced livelihood villages, healthy villages, child-friendly villages, water sufficient villages, clean and green villages, villages with self-sufficient infrastructure, socially just and socially secured villages, villages with good governance and women-friendly villages, as per their performance in the themes at the district level.

Racharla panchayat and Dupadu panchayat of Tripurantakam mandal received State-level awards.

The Collector and other district officials appreciated the sarpanches and ground-level staff for their work, and presented prizes to the staff, who won at the sports meet conducted as part of the National Panchayat Day.