Minister of Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar conferred the national Panchayat Awards, 2019 at a function in New Delhi today. 246 Awards were given to awardee Panchayats and States in various categories for their best performance at different levels, including the delivery of services.
22 Gram Panchayats were awarded in Child-Friendly Gram Panchayats Award and six states were awarded under e-Panchayat Puraskar category. Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been incentivizing the best performing Panchayats as recommended by the State Governments since 2011-12.
Speaking on the occasion, Narendra Singh Tomar asked the awardees to act as ambassadors for other Gram Panchayats and share their best practices so that they could also move on the path of development. He said, to create a new India, all the 2.50 lakh Gram Panchayats must be developed. He said, in 14th Finance Commission, over two lakh crore rupees have been allocated to Gram Panchayats as against 65,000 crore rupees given under 13th Finance Commission.
The Minister also launched an App called ‘Gram Manchitra’ which is a Geo-Spatial based decision support system for panchayats.
Panchayati Raj Ministers from Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Assam and Tamil Nadu along with representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions across the country took part in the award ceremony. Panchayati Raj Secretary Amarjeet Sinha also shared his views on the occasion.
Our correspondent spoke to some of the awardees who said this will further encourage them to work for development.