Dr. Avnish Jolly, Chandigarh, 10th October, 2008 :Two villages of district Gurgaon will get ‘ Nirmal Gram Puruskar ‘ from the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil on 17th October in the national level function to be organised at Mahabir Stadium of Hisar. These two villages are Gugana and Lohtaki. Interestingly, Sarpanches of both these villages are women.
Disclosing this here today, the spokesman of the District Administration said that villages Gugana of Farrukhnagar block and Lohtaki of Sohna block have been selected for Nirmal Gram Puruskar from district Gurgaon. Bimla Devi Sarpanch of Gugana and Premwati, Sarpanch of Lohtaki would receive the award from the President. Both women sarpanches will get a certificate in recognition of overall cleanliness and making their villages free from traditional open-defecation practice. More than 600 panchayats of the state will be honoured at this national level function.
He said that in Gugana, three community toilets have been constructed with the financial assistance of Rs.1.20 lakhs from the district administration while an amount of Rs. 30,000 was contributed by the panchayat which played a very significant role in generating awareness among villagers about benefits of cleanliness. The spokesman added that as per the scheme of total sanitation campaign, 28 BPL families of the village were provided with financial help of Rs.1200 each for constructing toilets in their houses. A grant of Rs.33,600 was given in Gugana for the purpose. Similarly, 27 such families in Lohtaki were provided Rs.32,400 as financial help for construction of toilets in their houses.
Both women sarpanches were already felicitated by the district administration at the state level Independence Day function in recognition of their commendable services for their villages’ betterment. Premwati, sarpanch of village Lohtaki though illiterate and learnt only to write her name along with her husband Lakhi ram, a retired Honrary Captain from army, took a lead in cleaning the village streets herself with a group of rural women as it was done traditionally in Haryana. Premwati got unanimously elected as sarpanch in the last panchayat elections. The Block Development and Panchayat Officer of Sohna, Rishi Kumar appreciating the efforts of Premwati, said that she got the development works implemented honestly in the village.
Similarly, the sarpanch of village Gugana Bimla Devi also got elected sarpanch for the first time and despite being not so well educated, was successful in generating awareness about cleanliness and sanitation, said the District Development and Panchayat Officer Alka Chaudhary.