Some rest on their laurels while some others use these as stepping stones for even bigger heights. The Nedumangad block panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram district is doing the latter.
Winner of the Central government’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar for the best block panchayat for three consecutive years and a winner of the State government’s Swaraj trophy for two successive years, the block panchayat has been now using all the prize money to set up a fund to provide monthly grants to cancer patients from economically backward families.
The Nedumangad block panchayat now has ₹1.3 crore in a separate bank account, all of it from prizes won over the past three years. This, along with funds obtained from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, will be deposited in a fixed deposit account, the interest amount of which will be used to set up a fund, from which ₹1,000 each will be sent to the bank accounts of cancer patients in the five panchayats coming under the Nedumangad block.
Field visits
“We have got a list of 20 cancer patients from each of the panchayats. Priority is given to children, the differently abled, transgender persons, unmarried or divorced, or anyone who is unable to support themselves. The block panchayat has formed a committee consisting of doctors, which will conduct field visits to the houses of each of the persons on the list to ascertain their eligibility,” says Nedumangad block panchayat president B. Biju.
He says that the block panchayat decided to set up such a fund to fulfil its aim of interventions in palliative care.
“Usually, such prize money is spent on roads or buildings for which we already have funds. We thought we should use it for welfare spending. The cooperative bank is an important partner in the initiative, providing a high interest of 7.25%. Individuals and organisations are donating as part of CSR,” says Mr. Biju.
Some of the initiatives that fetched the block panchayats all the awards include a bio-village for organic farming, where training in farming is also provided. It has led the cleaning up of the first 22 km of the Killi river. A project incubation and training centre has also become a revenue-generating venture for the block panchayat, along with the large organic farm.