Gandhinagar: Vavkulli-2 gram panchayat in Panchmahal district of Gujarat bagged the top spot in the ‘panchayat with good governance‘ category at the National Panchayat Awards 2024, the state govt said on Friday. The award acknowledges the panchayat’s exceptional governance efforts during 2022-23.
Additional development commissioner Gaurav Dahiya received the award from President Droupadi Murmu at a function held in Delhi on Dec 11, the govt informed. Quoting Dahiya, a govt statement said, “Gujarat has been making commendable efforts in modernising rural development and gram panchayats with advanced facilities. In recent years, the state govt has been focusing on increasing compliance with e-governance in administrative processes within gram panchayats and prioritising important aspects such as ease of living in rural areas.”
At the National Panchayat Awards 2024, a total of Rs 46 crore was awarded to 45 panchayats and directly transferred to their accounts. Gujarat’s share of the prize money was also digitally transferred to its account, the statement said.
Gram panchayats were ranked and recognised for their performance in nine areas — poverty-free and enhanced livelihoods, healthy panchayat, child-friendly panchayat, water-sufficient panchayat, clean and green panchayat, self-sufficient infrastructure, socially just and secured panchayat, panchayat with good governance and women-friendly panchayat.
For the awards, 1.94 lakh gram panchayats from across the country participated. A total of 45 were declared winners and 42% of these panchayats were led by women.
