Nalukottai in Sivaganga district has evolved into an exceptional village panchayat of rare accomplishments.
Adjudged the `model panchayat' for 2000-2001 by the Tamil Nadu Government, the village sports a healthy look with trendy cement streets and drainage facilities. All but one dwelling unit have been converted into either tiled or concrete roofed structures.
- Nalukottai also boasts of a `samathuva mayanam' (common graveyard for all castes and religions), a rarity in this part of the State.
- The panchayat, with a population of nearly 3000, is in the arid Sivaganga district where water is a rare commodity. But even in times of crisis, Nalukottai never falls short of water supply. Ten open wells, two overhead tanks with a capacity of 30,000 litres each, an automatic pressure tank and two borewells provide adequate water for all purposes. Fiftyfive house connections and one each for four houses in streets have been provided. Twelve handpumps have been installed at various places. Rainwater harvesting is also being popularised.
- "The burning percentage of streetlights is an astounding 98.5," says N.O.V.S. Ramanathan, who has been the panchayat president since 1965. Almost all houses are electrified.
- There is no manual scavenging. Of the 503 houses, 140 have been provided with modern toilets under the Central Rural Sanitation Programme. The rest have had the facility already.
- At every street corner are provided dustbins, which workers clear once a week. The villagers strictly boycott plastics.
- Those who expect to look at a dilapidated noon meal centre and a ration shop would be in for a pleasant surprise. Almost all buildings housing Government and panchayat offices are new and neat.
- "Only the health sub-centre is functioning in a rented building," says the 68-year-old president.
- The fair price shop might be one among a very few in the district, perhaps in the State itself, which have not to received any complaint from consumers.
- Only standard measures are used at the shop, manned by women members of a self-help group, and the prices of commodities never go beyond the stipulated levels. A pessimist would dismiss these claims, what with a general perception of supplies to ration shops usually being low in quantity.
- But a woman SHG member, who runs the shop, refutes this. "For Nalukottai, the supply is made directly under the supervision of a senior official. We receive the exact quantity."
- The president says the panchayat will soon construct a shopping complex near the fair price shop for the SHG members to market their products.
- At a time when many villages practise caste discrimination even in the use of burial grounds, Nalukottai promotes `samathuvam' on the cremation ground. "As equality was successfully implemented, the Government gave us a bonus of Rs. 1.5 lakhs for village development," says Mr. Ramanathan. The village never faces funds shortage. The villagers, rich or poor, never fail to pay taxes. When tree saplings were planted two years ago under a Social Forestry Scheme, the villagers were asked not to rear sheep, which would graze the tender plants. "They obliged."
- There is total prohibition in the village. Crime rate is insignificant compared to other panchayats.
- Being a model panchayat, the village has received an additional sum of Rs. 1 lakh as incentive.
