Karnataka village bags first rank in national survey on standard of living in rural areas

Known for the co-operative movement in Karnataka, Hulkoti got a score of 90% for providing clean water for drinking, good roads, having 82.23% literacy and a good drainage system.
View of Hulkoti gram panchayat (Photo | Express)
View of Hulkoti gram panchayat (Photo | Express)

GADAG: The people of Gadag got a New Year gift after Hulkoti village bagged the first rank in the Mission Antyodaya Survey conducted by the Union government from October to December 2020. Nandagad and Kulagod gram panchayats of Belagavi district were also in the top 10.

The survey was conducted to check on the standard of living in rural areas across India. Known for the co-operative movement in Karnataka, Hulkoti got a score of 90% for providing clean water for drinking, good roads, having 82.23% literacy and a good drainage system. The Antyodaya Survey had 141 questions on rural development and gram panchayat staff answered them with relevant pictures.

Hulkoti village has 2733 families and each of them gets clean drinking water. The village has a 42-km underground drainage system. All roads are asphalted and the main roads are built with cement, while the whole village is cleaned every day. The village roads have many small trees to maintain a clean environment.

The gram panchayat provides ample job opportunities to villagers under MGNREGA and other schemes. In addition to this, jobs are also created in private farms in and around Hulkoti to reduce unemployment. All these factors fetched it the No.1 position in India.

Manjunath Bhajantri, a resident of the village, said, “Hulkoti gram panchayat officials have been working towards providing job opportunities and maintaining cleanliness. When outsiders visit our village, they express happiness on seeing the roads. It is all due to the efforts of gram panchayat officials and the cooperation of villagers.”

Former Zilla Panchayat president Siddalingeshwar Patil said former minister H K Patil hails from the same village and contributed a lot for its development, which has resulted in this honour.

Gadag MLA H K Patil said, "My father K H Patil, who started the cooperative movement in the state, dreamt of this and it has now turned into reality. We are happy to know that our village got another feather in its crown. It is a model village in this region as we are providing clean drinking water to all and the literacy rate is high. Two years ago, the village had bagged 5th place and now it is 1st."

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