Eraviperoor Gram Panchayat

The Eraviperoor Gram Panchayat located in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district has carried out several initiatives for the overall development of the panchayat. Interventions have been carried out in the areas of e-Governance, Education, Environment conservation, water supply, waste management, institution building and for improving service delivery of government schemes.

Initiatives related to E-governance

• Under the E-Governance sector, certificates like marriage, birth and death have been made online which can be issued to the villagers without much difficulty for the villagers.
• The notices and information regarding various important issues are provided through voice and text messages for the benefit of the villagers.
• All salaries and honorariums of the board members are paid through banks.
• A record room has been set up to trace the records and documents without any delay.
• Ten softwares developed by the Information Kerala Mission have been installed and are being applied for facilitating e-Governance.
• The office building of the Gram Panchayat has been connected through wi-fi internet networking technology.
• Total Quality Management system has been adopted and ISO 9001-2008 Certification has been achieved for the Panchayat Office making it one of the few such panchayats in the country.

Initiatives related to Education

• A village knowledge centre has been established having a reference library and a coaching centre for civil service and other competitive examinations.
• Sanskrit, yoga and art and culture classes are organised for inculcating cultural values into students. Also, a directory for the history, culture and indigenous knowledge of the village has been prepared to conserve traditional wisdom.

Initiatives related to Environment

• For conserving environment, an environment gram sabha was organised for creating awareness on waste management and other environmental issues.
• Twenty thousand seedlings of shade trees were distributed to ensure better environment in the future.
• A biogas plant and vermi pipe-ring compost units were distributed and a modern slaughter house, a modern fish market and a WATSAN park was constructed for improved waste treatment.
• A plastic tar road was constructed from the plastic waste collected by the women in the village making the village a model in waste management.
• A government land which was being used as a dumping area has been converted into a children’s park.

Initiatives related to Water

• Various initiatives have been carried out specifically in the Scheduled Caste colonies to improve the situation of drinking water supply by making effective use of the Scheduled Caste development fund. This has improved drinking water supply in 50 households in the village.
• Rejuvenation of a dry river was done through the funds of MGNREGA for catering to the needs of the villagers and for increasing the groundwater level.
• Various initiatives like cultivation on fallow land, distribution of banana seedlings, subsidy for seedlings and fertilisers, poly houses, etc have been taken for promoting agricultural activities.

Initiatives related to Women empowerment

• Yoga classes have been started through eight centres for curing and preventing diseases.
• Karate classes are organised especially amongst girls in the age group of 10-15 years for teaching them self- defence and also improving their self-confidence.
• Special committees for redressing grievances of women have been formed and since 2010, 173 out of the 182 petitions have been amicably settled.

Awards

The panchayat has received various prestigious awards such as State best Bio-Diversity Management Committee Award 2013-14, Arogya Puraskaram 2013-14 and as best panchayat for implementing Pain and Paliative scheme 2013-14. The Sweeden based International Centre for Local Democracy has elected the panchayat as the best Panchayat for its diversity of project implementation and visited the panchayat with its research team comprising members from eleven Nations. It has been elected as Model High Tech Green Village and thereby received an additional State government aid of Rs 3 cr. in the year 2013-14. The plastic waste management project implemented in the panchayat was elected as the district level model project.

Numerous initiatives taken in the village lead to substantial development in the panchayat and also ensured a better future for the coming generations.

Source: Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana