SANGAREDDY: Medak district stood in first in securing the highest number of Nirmal Puraskar awards announced by the Central government on Monday.
While, 35 villages in Telangana were selected for the 2013 Nirmal Puraskar awards, 25 villages out of them are from Medak district alone. The basic criteria for getting the award is achieving 100 percent sanitation, toilets at every household, good supply of safe drinking water, CC roads, on time tax payments by the villagers to the gram panchayat, all school-aged children going to school, etc.
The awards were not given on the basis of reports from local officials but a special team deputed by the Central government who visited the villages and submitted its report based on the on-the-field observations. Sources said, the credit of bagging as many as 25 awards by Medak district goes to the earlier officers who worked a lot to achieve 100 percent sanitation. Besides Medak, Karimnagar bagged five Nirmal Puraskar awards whereas Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Nizamabad secured three each.
Between 2006 and 2013, Medak district bagged 125 Nirmal Puraskar awards including 25 in 2013. Officers are hopeful that in 2014 awards also Medak will retain its first position.
RWS SE Vijay Prakash said in 2008 the district bagged an all-time record of 44 Nirmal Puraskar awards. “Getting the award to a village is not an easy task. It requires cleanliness in village and having individual toilet in every house, facilities to collect litter from houses, which constitutes an overall efficient sanitation system,” he added.
He said once a village gets the award, Central government takes care of development of the village and provides funds of `1 lakh to `10 lakh for various development activities, and `7 to `20 lakh for solid-liquid waste management.