14 rural bodies in Bengal clinch national awards
KOLKATA: Fourteen rural bodies under the three tier Panchayats system in Bengal will receive national awards on the occasion of the National Panchayati Raj Day observed on April 24.
A written communication regarding this reached the state Panchayats and Rural Development (P & RD) department from the Centre on Wednesday.
"We have got a written communication from the Centre about winning 14 awards on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day. It has been possible because of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's constant monitoring and development of the rural infrastructure in Bengal . It will be a morale booster for us to continue our efforts for development of rural bodies," Pulak Roy, state P & RD minister said. He added that development of Panchayats is considered as an indicator for decentralised governance and there has been a significant improvement in their performance. A total of 14 Zilla Parishads, Panchayat Samitis and Gram Panchayats have been selected for the national awards for the financial year 2020-21.The child-friendly Gram Panchayat award 2022 has been bagged by Bijur-II Gram Panchayat under Memari-2 block of East Burdwan.The Gram Panchayat development award 2022 is going to Goagaon-I Gram Panchayat under Goalpokhar-I block of North Dinajpur. The National Gram Sabha award 2022 has been won by Ilambazar Gram Panchayat under Birbhum's Ilambazar block. Eleven Zilla Parishads, Panchayat Samitis and Gram Panchayats have been selected under the category of Panchayat Empowerment award 2022. These include the Zilla Parishads in South 24-Parganas and East Burdwan, Panchayat Samitis of Basirhat in North 24-Parganas and Daspur-I in West Midnapore and seven Gram Panchayats namely Bolsi-II in Bankura, Amrakuchi in West Midnapore, Bohar-I in South Dinajpur, Gangarampur in South Dinajpur, Kumari in Purulia, Machlandpur I in North 24-Parganas and Bhagwantpur I under Chandrakona II block in West Midnapore.A senior official said a number of projects are in the pipeline for strengthening the institutional capacity of the Panchayats.
