Kollam has bagged top honours in the district panchayat and Corporation categories of the Ardra Keralam Puraskaram announced on Friday for 2017-18.
The award, instituted by the State government, acknowledges local self-government institutions that make effective interventions in health and related sectors using LSGI funds. Project details on Information Kerala Mission software, data collected from health institutions, online reporting and field inspections were used for the finding the best-performing LSGIs. Kollam district panchayat, Kollam Corporation, Kattappana municipality (Idukki), Neeleswaram block panchayat (Kasaragod) and Kilimanoor grama panchayat (Thiruvananthapuram) came in top positions in various categories. While Alappad grama panchayat in Kollam won the third prize in the grama panchayat category, Klappana, Anchal, and Pooyappally came in the first three positions at the district level. State-level awards carry a purse of ₹10 lakh while district-level top three winners will get ₹5 lakh, ₹3 lakh and ₹2 lakh each.
Many projects
Kollam district panchayat, which has won the award for the fifth consecutive year, had launched a spate of projects such as mammography and chemotherapy units in the District Hospital, medical aid for the elderly, and palliative training centre. The chemotherapy unit offers both inpatient and outpatient services, cancer diagnosis, cancer research facilities along with palliative care. The district panchayat had spent ₹50 lakh on its infrastructure.
Kutti Doctor, a project to promote healthy lifestyle in children, Mathrusanthwanam, to treat depression in new mothers and Sneha Sammanam, distribution of baby kits to newborns are the other major projects.
The Kollam Corporation had focussed on the infrastructure of health centres. Yoga and swimming training for students, napkin vending machines in schools and Student Health Cadets, a task force trained by health professionals, are other initiatives of the Corporation.