Heading Dakshina Kannada towards total sanitation, a total of 112 Gram Panchayats from the district have applied for the President’s Nirmal Gram Puraskar for the year 2007-08. Inspired by the success the GPs achieved last year, more number of GPs are now enthusiastic to win the President’s trophies.

Dakshina Kannada had won the credit of winning the highest number of trophies, that is 45, in the entire State in 2006-07. A total of 12 GPs from Bantwal, 15 from Belthangady, 7 from Mangalore, 6 from Puttur and 5 GPs from Sullia taluk won the Nirmal Gram Puraskar last year.

This year, a total of 35 GPs from Bantwal taluk, 26 from Belthangady taluk, 12 from Mangalore, 19 from Puttur and 20 from Sullia taluk have applied for the President’s awards.

“The selection for the awards is based on the recommendation of the expert panel. Once all GPs in a taluk are conferred with the awards, the taluk is declared as Nirmal Taluk that will get Rs 20 lakh for its development works,” DK Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer A M Kunjappa informed Deccan Herald.

He added that Bantwal and Belthangady were aiming at winning the overall award for the respective taluks this year. If all 35 GPs applied this year (total 47) from Bantwal taluk get the Nirmal Gram Puraskar, the entire taluk will be awarded. Similarly if all 26 GPs applied this year (total 41) from Belthangady taluk get the Puraskar, the taluk as a whole will get President’s honour.

Mr Kunjappa said the taluks, if selected, will get Rs 20 lakh each apart from the trophy for further developmental works. The DK district as a whole has the intention of making all GPs to win the award by 2008, that is the next year, thus to win the President’s Puraskar. The district, hence, will get Rs 50 lakh prize, he explained. The individual GPs are receiving Rs 4 lakh each if they win the trophy.

The list of the aspiring GPs had to be finalised by the end of September itself, but the deadline was extended by one more month considering the enthusiasm of the villagers.

The name of the GPs will come online after October 31, once the invigilation teams finish examining the GPs.

Inspection begins

A total of four different panels representing different NGOs from Bangalore and Mysore have started examine the status of the applied Gram Panchayats in DK. Mr Kunjappa said a Myrada team from Mysore has arrived in Sullia on Monday, while three other panels comprising members of Centre for Environment and Education, Outreach and Maithri will examine other taluks.

“The inspection is scheduled to conclude on October 21 and file their recommendations. However, the process in Belthangady will begin only on October 22 and end by October 24,” the CEO noted.