A.P. Panchayat Raj Department wins national award for second consecutive year

Context: Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan has expressed happiness over the State’s Panchayat Raj Department being selected for the prestigious Deendayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas National Awards for the second consecutive year.

• Bokkasam Palem village in Srikalahasti mandal of Tirupati district for secured the first position at the national level under the category of women-friendly panchayats.
• Sringavaram village panchayat in Visakhapatnam district secured the top rank in the governance category.
• Chemmullapalli village in YSR Kadapa district earned the second position nationally for its efforts in poverty alleviation and improving livelihoods at the village level.
• The Gundamala village panchayat in Prakasam district stood third among panchayats that achieved self-sufficiency in infrastructure development.
• Kuppam mandal, part of the constituency represented by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, was selected as the third-best mandal at the national level.

Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been incentivizing best performing Panchayats through National Panchayat Awards. These awards have been revamped and launched during the year 2022 aligning them with 9 Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) themes aggregating 17 SDGs.
Primary objective through this competition is to assess the performance of Panchayats in attainment of SDGs, promote competitive spirit among them and catalyze the process of LSDGs through Panchayati Raj Institutions for attaining LSDGs by 2030.

Key Features

• Awards competition structure is now multi-level pyramidical at Block, District, State/UT and National Level.
• All the Panchayats will be ranked based on their performance under each of the following 9 LSGD themes :
  1. Poverty free and enhanced livelihoods Panchayat
  2. Healthy Panchayat
  3. Child Friendly Panchayat
  4. Water Sufficient Panchayat
  5. Clean and Green Panchayat
  6. Self-sufficient infrastructure in Panchayat
  7. Socially Just and Socially secured Panchayat
  8. Panchayat with Good Governance
  9. Women-Friendly Panchayat
• All the Gram Panchayats have to mandatorily fill the Questionnaires under all 9 award themes.

Categories of Awards

Awards at National Level will be given to Gram, Block and District Panchayats under following categories namely:

• Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar: Top 3 GPs under each of 9 award themes
• Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar: For top 3 best GPs, BPs and DPs with highest average score under all themes combined
• Atma Nirbhar Panchayat Special Award: For 3 GPs for their efforts towards mobilization and augmentation of Own Source of Revenue (OSR)
• Climate Action Special Panchayat Award: For 3 GPs towards achieving Net-Zero carbon emissions and usage of renewable source of energy
• Panchayat Kshamta Nirmaan Sarvottam Sansthan Puraskar: For 3 Institutions who has provided institutional support to GPs in achieving LSDGs
• Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar: One GP which qualifies and gets shortlisted for National Panchayat Awards during the subsequent years
• Best Participant (State/District): State/UT with highest percentage of participation from GPs (>90%)