Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120559480300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

110 village panchayat presidents leave for Pune

Special Correspondent

To receive Nirmal Puraskar awards from the President of India on December 8

— Photo: M.Moorthy

Happy journey: Presidents of village panchayats leaving for Pune from Tiruchi on Thursday to receive awards from the President of India.

TIRUCHI: Presidents of 110 village panchayats from Tiruchi, which have bagged the Union government’s Nirmal Puraskar awards, left for Pune to receive the awards from the President there on December 8.

Tiruchi has bagged the highest number of Nirmal Puraskar awards among the districts in the State this year.

The annual awards are given by the Union government for cent per cent achievement in village sanitation. Of the 1,966 villages in the State that applied for the award this year, 1,249 have been chosen after an assessment made by a screening committee, from New Delhi.

The main criteria were total sanitation through individual household toilets, school sanitation, eradication of open defecation and cleanliness of the village environment. The district administration had recommended 156 panchayats for the awards.

So far, 140 of the 408 village panchayats in the district have got the awards instituted in 2006.

Five panchayats had got the award in 2006 and 25 in 2007. Significantly, all 25 panchayats in the Thathaiyengarpet panchayat union have got the awards. Twenty-two panchayats in the union have got the awards this year, and three had received the honours in the past couple of years.

The panchayat presidents were seen off at the Railway Junction, when they left for Pune, by Collector T.Soundiah and other senior officials. A team of officials were accompanying the panchayat presidents.