VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday presented National Panchayat Raj Awards 2021 to panchayats, mandals and districts of the state on occasion of National Panchayat Raj Day.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the National Panchayat Awards ceremony through video conference with chief ministers of various states. With the switch of a button, the Prime Minister deposited cash incentives in accounts of panchayats, mandals and districts that had won the awards throughout the country.
Narendra Modi also launched distribution of e-property cards in 5,000 villages of seven states. Speaking on the occasion, the PM pointed out that village panchayats had dealt well during the Covid-19 situation last year. They should continue to do this year too with the same spirit.
Andhra Pradesh won 17 awards in 2021 as against the 15 awards last year. AP received state-level second award in e-panchayat category, two awards at district level, four awards at mandal and 10 awards at panchayat level. A cash incentive of Rs. 50,000 is given at the district level, Rs. 25,000 at mandal level and Rs. 8,000–10,000 at the level of villages depending on their population.
The Chief Minister presented the state-wide second award for Andhra Pradesh in e Panchayat category to panchayat raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and panchayat raj commissioner Girija Shankar.
District-level awards (Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar) went to Guntur district ZP CEO D. Chaitanya and Krishna district ZP CEO Surya Prakash Rao. The mandal-level awards went to MPDOs of Sodem in Chittoor district, Kakinada Rural in East Godavari district, Vijayawada Rural in Krishna district and Penugonda in Anantapur district.
Panchayats that got the award from the CM are Varkuru in Kurnool district, Pedalabudu in Visakhapatnam district, Gullapalli in Guntur district, Thada Kandriga, Thaallapalem, Parthavellanti and Pennabarthi in Nellore district and G. Rangampeta in East Godavari district.
Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, principal secretary (Revenue) V. Usha Rani, panchayat raj commissioner Girija Shankar, land records commissioner Siddarth Jain, officers of various districts, mandal-level officers and sarpanches were present on the occasion.
