President presents Nirmal Gram Puraskar for total sanitation

New Delhi, May 4 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today exhorted Panchayati Raj representatives to work for maintaining sanitation, providing basic amenities and education to people and reducing crime in rural areas.

Presenting the Nirmal Gram Puruskar to 4437 PRI, 13 blocks and one NGO for achieving total sanitation, Dr Kalam asked the award winners to dedicate their lives to reducing pollution and bring honesty and transparency in the local administration.

The President said that only clean village panchayats could make clean districts and ultimately clean and pollution free states which could lead to the country being recognised as achieving the Millennium Development Goal of total sanitation.

Addressing awardees first in Tamil and then in chaste Hindi, Dr Kalam asked the Panchyati Raj representatives to take eight pledges which included that they would work to make the village panchayats clean and pollution free by providing sanitation and safe drinking water to all and provide urban facilities in rural areas.

The President asked them to work for making their panchyats free from crime, resolve all petty quarrel peacefully and provide educational facilities to all boys and girls and make villagers literate. They also made pledge to prevent water pollution and conserve water and adopt safe waste disposal techniques.

Interestingly, the Award function witnessed multi-lingual heritage of the country with Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar addressing the awardees in Tamil, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh in Hindi, Minister of State for Rural Development Suryakanta Patil in Marathi, Minister of State for Rural Development Chandra Shekhar Sahu in English and a women Panchyati Raj representative from Tripura giving the vote of thanks in her own local language.

More UNI