Media Release

Mangaluru, Sep 16: Manjunath Bhandary, a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council (MLC), proposed the resumption of the ‘Gandhi Gram Puraskara’ scheme, which has been stopped since 2019-20, as a zero hour question in the council session. Bhandary appealed to the chief minister through a letter regarding this matter.

Responding to the questions of the MLC, the chief minister said that the Gandhi Gram Puraskar scheme was launched in 2013-14 as one of the several incentive measures for Panchayat Raj Institutions to increase transparency, accountability and speed in the governance system of Panchayat Raj Institutions in the state.

An incentive grant of Rs 5 lac is given to the selected gram panchayat in this scheme which identifies one gram panchayat for each taluk of the state. In the backdrop of covid-19, the grant will not be given to the gram panchayats selected for Gandhi Gram Puraskar in 2019-20.

The chief minister said that the proposal to select gram panchayats for Gandhi Gram Puraskar for the financial year 2020-21 is under consideration.