Parassala, Vellanad top nat'l rural devpt survey rankings
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T'puram: Two panchayats, Parassala and Vellanad, in Thiruvananthapuram district secured places in the top 100 rankings of the best-performing panchayats across the nation in the survey conducted by
Mission Antyodaya
.
It is an initiative of ministry of rural development for the optimum utilization of funds allocated for the development of rural areas of the country.With a weightage score of 139.98, Parassala secured the 53rd rank nationally and Vellanad came in 75th position with a score of 138.79.
These panchayats secured first and second places in the state-wise rankings.The national survey was conducted in the year 2022-23, but the results were published only recently. Two panchayats in Gujarat secured the first two spots, followed by six places in Telangana.The ranking reflects the progress and performance of various development programmes within the specific grama panchayat.It also reflects the score of each panchayat in major sectors like agriculture, health, sanitation and rural infrastructure. The ranking will help identify the deficits in each panchayat and on the basis of it, measures will be taken to plan a course of action for each year."We expected a much better rank as we were excellent in implementing all the projects. We could provide 100% electricity connections and toilet facilities in all the households. Since our panchayat is small, our own fund is meagre and implementation of projects depends fully on state funds. There was a delay in releasing funds for various projects and it affects implementation. If the govt grants funds on time, we can improve our rankings next time," said
Vellanad panchayat
president K S Rajalakshmi.
Parassala panchayat
president Manju Smitha L also expressed her happiness over the ranking and promised to take more efforts to advance the level.However, an officer of the economics and statistics department opined that despite being an advanced state, only two panchayats could secure spots in the first 100 ranks.
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The officer also blamed the common criteria being followed for determining the ranks and suggested that only a govt-level intervention can change the odd criteria being followed.
"In Kerala, a panchayat is formed of two or more villages, unlike the other states which have just a village in one panchayat. In the Yes/No questionnaire for the survey, there are questions on how many post offices are there in the village, how many railway stations, Jan Aushadhis, public toilets, etc. In most of the panchayats, there will be only one such facility, but to the questions to other villagers, the answers could be No. This led to the decline in points earned and none of our panchayats got placed in the first 50 rankings," the officer said.Each question carries two points and there are 50 such questions in the questionnaire.
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