Need to change mindset of rural people: Shettar

Nairmalya Awards

He was speaking at a programme by the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj to distribute cleanliness awards to the various gram panchayats and schools at the Chennayya Rangamandira on Tuesday.

“It was only through an attitudinal change towards cleanliness and hygiene that Dakshina Kannada district was able achieve total cleanliness and become a model for other districts in the State. Similarly, other districts must derive inspiration to achieve cent per cent cleanlinessn,” he added.

In the gram panchayats of Kolar district, there are 33 women members. They can be the driving spirit behind the cleanliness campaign. They can focus on cleanliness and hygiene and drive home their importance and necessity more effectively, the minister suggested.
The cleanliness awards were earlier instituted only by the Union government. Since last year, district-level and taluk-level awards are also being instituted by the State government in order to encourage cleanliness, Shettar said.

Details of the awards

The district-level Rajatha Nairmalya Award and the taluk-level Nairmalya Award were received by Chinnakote gram panchayat of Bangarpet (first) and the Narasapur gram panchayat of Kolar (second), while the Shivarpatna gram panchayat of Malur taluk received the third prize.

In the district-level, all three panchayats received Rs three lakh, Rs two lakh and Rs one lakh, cash prizes respectively. In the taluk-level awards, each panchayat received an amount of Rs one lakh.

In the taluk-level, Uttanuru gram panchayat of Mulbagal taluk received a cash prize of Rs one lakh, Uttanuru Higher Primary School received the ‘Swachcha Shala Nairmalya’ award which carries a cash prize of Rs 20,000 and Nambiganahalli School of Malur taluk received Rs 50,000, Mallakuppa Anganwadi Centre of Mulbagal taluk received the Swachcha Anganwadi award which carries a cash prize of Rs 25,000, while the Chinnakoti Anganwadi Centre of Bangarpet received an amount Rs 10,000 cash prize.

Chairmen of various associations and organisations, head masters of various schools and the anganwadi workers were felicitated at the programme.

District In-charge Minister A Narayanswamy, MLAs Venkatashivareddy, S N Krishnaiah Shetty, Zilla Panchayat President Manjula Venkatesh, Vice-President Somashekhar, Chief Executive Officer N Shantappa were present.