Prime Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy presented the Panchayats, Mandals and Districts with the National Panchayat Awards-2021, presented by the Panchayat Raj Union Ministry, on the occasion of National Panchayat Raj Day on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously started the award ceremony as part of a video conference.
The Panchayat Raj Minister of the Union, Narendra Singh Thomar, and the Prime Ministers of various countries attended.
Cash incentives were added to the bank accounts of the award-winning panchayats, mandals and districts at the touch of a button by the Prime Minister.
On that occasion, Mr Modi said the panchayats in the villages had performed well during the COVID-19 crisis last year and admonished them to work with the same spirit now as the second wave of the pandemic hit the country.
National Panchayat Raj Day is celebrated on April 24th and marks the entry into force of the Constitutional Law (73rd Amendment) of 1992, which gives certain powers to local authorities.
Andhra Pradesh won 15 awards in 2020 and 17 in 2021. It received the second best award among states in the e-Panchayat category, two awards at the district level, and four and 10 awards at the mandal and panchayat level, respectively.
District-level rewards include a cash incentive of £ 50,000, mandal-level rewards of £ 25,000, and village-level rewards of £ 8,000 to £ 10,000, depending on the population.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy presented Panchayat Raj and the Commissioner for Rural Development, M. Girija Shankar, with the state award in the e-Panchayat category.
The District Level Awards (Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar) were presented to the CEOs of Zilla Parishad, D. Chaitanya (Guntur) and Surya Prakash Rao (District Krishna).
The mandal-level awards were given to the MPDOs of Sodem Mandal (Chittoor), Kakinada Rural, Vijayawada Rural and Penugonda (Anantapur District).
The Chief Minister then presented awards to Varkuru (Kurnool), Pedalabudu (Visakhapatnam), Gullapalli (Guntur), G. Rangampeta (East Godavari) and T. Kandriga, Thallapalem, Parthavellanti and Pennabarthi (Nellore) panchayats.
Those in attendance included Chief Secretary (Revenue) V. Usha Rani and Land Registry, Surveying and Settlement Commissioner Siddharth Jain.