The Rural Development Ministry has given away 144 awards under various categories to states and other organisations in a function in New Delhi.
Awards on Sustainable Livelihood, Transparency and Accountability, Aadhaar Seeding, Conversion and Geo-MGNREGA were given under MGNREGA.
Under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)’, Bihar was awarded for constructing the highest number of rural roads while Madhya Pradesh got the award for use of non-conventional construction material in constructing roads.
Haryana, Gujarat and Karnataka received a special prize for completing more than 95 percent of PMGSY (Phase I &II) targets.
Under PMAY-G Awards were given to States which performed well on different parameters, Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee which provided technical vetting of housing typologies, NIC team of the Department of Rural Development for technical support and Dr. Prabir Kumar Das, Senior citizen, Advisor, UNDP for significant contribution in use of innovative technologies.
9 District Collectors who have completed largest number of PMAY-G houses were also awarded, the significant part being 5 of the 9 District Collectors coming from Odisha.
Awards were given to National Resource Organizations, State Rural Livelihood Missions and Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India and ICICI Bank.
The States which received awards were Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka and West Bengal under different categories.
Under skill development category the best performing States, best champion employers and best training partners, received the awards.
There was also a presentation on the key findings of evaluation of National Rural Livelihood Mission carried out by Indian Institute of Rural Management, Anand. Evaluation report had highlighted the main strength of the programme and has given many suggestions for strengthening and expansion of the programme across the country.
