Chhattisgarh on Saturday bagged 12 awards under the ‘Rashtriya Panchayat Puraskar-2021’ given away by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi e-transferred the prize money to winning panchayats at a virtual ceremony held in New Delhi on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister T.S. Singh Deo and Revenue Minister Jaisingh Agarwal also attended the award ceremony via video conferencing. This is the second consecutive year when 12 awards have been conferred upon Panchayati Raj institutions of Chhattisgarh for their outstanding work. In 2020 as well, the state was awarded the e-panchayat award along with 11 national awards for panchayat raj institutions in various categories. Prior to that in 2019, the panchayats of Chhattisgarh won 11 national awards.
The Indian government has conferred the E-Panchayat Award on Chhattisgarh for its superior performance in the use of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) in Panchayats. Chhattisgarh is sharing second rank in the first category (Category-I) with Assam. The Union Ministry has conferred the Deendayal Upadhyay Panchayat Empowerment Award upon Kondagaon District Panchayat, Gariaband and Tilda Janpad Panchayat and Sargwan of Ambikapur Development Block in Sarguja District and Riri of Lundra Development Block, Mahud (A) of Gundardehi Block in Balod District, Mahratola of Sahaspur Lohara Development Block in Kabirdham District and Bahar Gram Panchayat of K Arang Development Block in Raipur district. Under the National Panchayat Award-2021, Nanaji Deshmukh National Gaurav Gram Sabha Award has been conferred upon remote forest area Gotaiguda Gram Panchayat of Bhopalpatnam Development Block in Bijapur District, Bal Hiteshi Gram Panchayat Award has been awarded to Nawagaon (L) of Abhanpur Development Block in Raipur District and Bahar gram panchayat of Arang Development Block was awarded Panchayat Vikas Yojana Award.