Little village sends out big message

WARANGAL: It is a little village on the Warangal-Narasampet road but is sending out a big message.

After all, it boasts of the best panchayat in the entire country and has been enforcing prohibition for the last two years. The village Gangadevipalli is spotlessly clean and there are neat signboards indicating wards.

There are cement roads without a crack, drains without garbage clogging them, and toilets in all houses. And compliance with family planning is hundred per cent.

The Rajiv Rural Development Foundation and the Indian Academy of Study and Research saw all this for themselves and adjudged the village as the best panchayat in the country for 2007.

‘‘I am delighted at the honour to our village. It became possible because all the residents were willing partners,’’ proud sarpanch K Rajamouli told this websites newspaper.

The village, which has a population of 1270, has been a model for quite a long time. In 1995, impressed by the civic sense of the people, the government upgraded it to a special panchayat.

And for its part, the village itself has taken the initiative on many occasions. For instance, it took up the responsibility of tackling the problem of fluoride in drinking water. And the panchayat provides cable TV connection to each house at nominal rates.

Tax compliance is total in this village. And another distinguishing feature is that the panchayat has constituted special committees to oversee development programmes, provide employment to women, monitor streetlighting and prohibition, as also health care, civil supplies, and education and see to the maintenance of the temple.

‘‘It is a red letter day in my life. All the residents of the village are very happy about the honour bestowed on us,’’ gushes the sarpanch.