COIMBATORE: Odanthurai, a panchayat situated in Mettupalayam taluk of Coimbatore district, has been a model village for the other villages for more than a decade. The panchayat has not only been generating electricity for their own use, but also selling power to Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).
Odanthurai, has it’s own wind mill of 350 kilowatt capacity set up at a cost of Rs 1.55 crore at Maivai near at Udumalai in the year 2005. Interestingly, it is selling nearly 2 lakh unit of electricity out of 6.75 lakh unit generated to the TNEB and making revenue of more than Rs 20 lakh in a year. They are using about 4.75 lakh units, for the panchayat.
To set up the wind mill, the panchayat has contributed Rs 40 lakh from its savings. For the remaining amount, the panchayat borrowed a loan amount for Rs 1.15 crore from a nationalised bank in 2005. The panchayat has been repaying the loan with the revenue generated by selling electricity to TNEB and now it is going to repay the remaining loan amount in couple of months.
R Shanmugam, an architect for the panchayat development, and a former president of the panchayat said, with the capital and the interest, the total loan amount stretches to Rs 1.84 crore, and we will soon settle the remaining amount of Rs 19 lakh to the bank.
Under the Green House Scheme of the State government, the Panchayat has till now built 850 houses and handed over to the real beneficiaries. It is highest record in the State. For his better performance, the people in the panchayat gave an opportunity to Shanmugam as a independent candidate between 1996 and 2006 though he is just 10th qualified. Since the panchayat was reserved for female, people elected Shanmugam’s spouse S Lingammal between 2006 and 2016 without a serious election campaign. Village panchayat presidents, college professors, students, foreign delegates and IAS officers have been visiting the village often, to learn the administrative perspective.