Jamshedpur: Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim won the first two prizes for empowering village councils.
Prime Minister Narendra gave the prizes on April 24 at a function to mark the National Panchayati Raj Day at Jamshedpur, an industrial town in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
Odisha, another eastern Indian state, received the third prize for the Incremental Devolution Index Award 2015-2016 for providing maximum power to the Gram Panchayats (village council).
Odisha state Panchayati Raj secretary Deoranjan Singh who received the award from the prime minister, said his state government had given enough funds to all panchayats for the development of Gram Panchayats and devised plans to give administrative and financial power to all 6,211 village councils to make them self-sufficient.
Modi also gave awards to Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Sikkim for their All Round Develpoment work in panchayats.
The previous United Progressive Alliance government started Panchayati Raj Day celebrations on April 24, 2010.
Around 3,000 Panchayat representatives from all states of the country attended this year’s celebrations at Jamshedpur’s JRD Tata Sports Complex. The program was streamed live to 250,000 village councils all over the country.
Addressing the delegates, the prime minister exhorted women panchayat representatives to take the lead and ensure that their villages are free of open defecation and they take care of their pregnant women.
He asked the participants to become vigilant and check false reporting and misappropriation of money from government schemes, besides urging them to be active to avail the benefits of government programs.
“The average strength of women representatives in panchayat bodies is around 40 percent. This is my humble request to you: can you take the lead in ensuring that you will get toilets constructed in all houses? Can you resolve to ensure that pregnant women, who are below the poverty line, in villages are taken care of till delivery? Can you keep an eye on the manner in which the midday meal scheme is implemented?”
He asked, “Do you understand how painful it is for such women? They are barely 25 years old. But (due to lack of care), either they die or the child. Or both die. Do you realise the mental condition of the man who loses his wife and child? Do you realize what such a family goes through?”
Modi further stressed that women representatives should not feel restricted thinking about their education. “The way you take care of your family is enough. That experience is enough. Don’t get bogged down by whether or not you are educated,” he said.
Pointing out that lack of funds, programs or intent of the government was no longer an issue, Modi said: “If you sit together and plan properly, the change you have been waiting for all your lives can be brought into your village within five years.”
On the other hand, the PM said, active panchayats get maximum benefit from government programs, besides getting funds. “Officers, too, like to visit such villages as they get their targets completed,” he said.
Earlier on April 23,Modi greeting those working to strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions across India. He tweeted “Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was the driving force behind the devolution of power to panchayats. Finally in 1993, two years after his death, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment came into force institutionalising Panchayati Raj.”
So far, National Panchayati Raj Day was celebrated in Delhi, but this year, as part of the ‘Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyan’, it is being celebrated in all gram panchayats across the country, except those in poll-bound states.