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Tamil Nadu
Nirmal Gram Puraskar winners take out procession in Cuddalore
Award instituted to promote rural sanitation and greenery
The Nirmal Gram Puraskar awardees in Cuddalore on Friday. —
CUDDALORE: The Nirmal Gram Puraskar awardees took out a candle light procession from the Circuit House to the Collector’s Camp office here on Friday.
They also burst firecrackers before the procession started .
Later, Collector Rajendra Ratnoo felicitated them and hosted them a dinner.
In all, 94 panchayat presidents from the district had bagged the award for this year.
They had just returned from Pune where they received the award from President Pratibha Patil on Monday.
The award has been instituted by the Centre, to promote rural sanitation, greenery and clean environment in the villages.
The awardees were selected for the award on the basis of their endeavour to motivate rural people to construct individual toilets, thereby banishing public defecation.
In fact, the panchayat presidents had implemented the Total Sanitation Programme in an appreciable manner by encouraging the schools, anganwadis and the Integrated Child Development Scheme centres to construct toilets.
The candle light procession was symbolic of the awareness created by the elected representatives of the local bodies of the importance of keeping personal hygiene among the villagers, and of forsaking unhealthy practices.
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