Former investment banker-turned Sarpanch of Dhunkapada gram panchayat in Ganjam Arati Devi, who was the youngest Sarpanch of the country in 2012, has been invited by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to address a session on ‘grassroots democracy’ in Sringar on Tuesday. She would speak on “Leadership of Panchayat: Social change, economic development and empowerment of women in rural areas” along with MPs Rajiv Pratap Ruddy, Jagadambika Pal and Geetha Viswanath Vnaga and Sarpanch of Bhilwara of Rajasthan. The “Parliamentary outreach programme for the empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir” has been organised by the Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE). Besides the Lok Sabha Speaker, the meeting would also be attended by Union Ministers Dr Jitendra Singh and Prahallad Singh Patel, J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Singha and former Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Kumar Singh. Arati had left her bank job to join politics. She was invited by the US Government to be part of the International Visitor leadership team to visit the US to observe democracy there. Besides, she had attended an international conference in London in 2014. In the following year, she was awarded as the best Sarpanch by the Indian Students' Parliament in Pune. Arati’s suggestions were accommodated in the recommendations of the Fourth and 14th Finance Commissions.
