DW BUREAU / Chandigarh The Union Rural Development Ministry has awared the Deendayal Upadhyay Panchayat Shastikaran Award and Nana Ji Deshmukh awards for the year 2020-21. These awards are given to the Panchayati Raj Institutions for good performance every year. The Pancahyati Raj Institutions of Punjab has brought laurels to the state by bagging 13 Awards this year. The Rural Development Minister, Punjab Kuldeep Dhaliwal today during a function organized at the head office of the Rural Development & Panchayats Department honoured the representatives of all 13 award winning Panachayati Raj Institutions of the state. In a congratulatory address to all the award winners the Rural Development and Panchayats Minister gave a clear message to the Panchayats to utilize the government grants in a fair and transparent manner without any discrimination. 'The Punjab Government would provide full support and honour panchayts for their good work, added the minister. Earlier the Punjab Rural Development Minister announced to Start Gram Sabha sessions from the Award Winning villages starting June 1, 2022. He said that this is for the first time in the history that Gram Sabhas would be held in all the villages of the state for which the work has already been started by the department. Rural Development Minister also gave a call to the educated Youth to come forward and participate in the elections of the Panchayati Raj Institutions for the development of their villages. He appealed to the representatives of the award winning institutions to be role models for other panchayats and motivate others to follow their path. The award winning institutes include 7 Gram Panchayats-2 Block Samities-1 Zila Parishid got Deendayal Upadhyay Panchayat Shastikaran Award, 1 Gram Sabha got Nana Ji Deshmukh Rashtria Gaurav award, 1 Gram Panchayat Development Plan Award, 1 Child Friendly Gram Panchayat Award. The winning Zila Parishid is awarded 50 lac, Panchayat Samities 25 lac, Gram Sabha 10 lacs, Gram Panchayats get 5 lac and get 3 lac additional for doing extra work. The Award winning institutes include Zila Parishid Patiala, Block Samitiees Machiwara, Ludhiana and Kapurthala, Kapurthala, Gram Panchayats Raikhana Baithinda, Rohle Ludhiana, Nagal Gharian - S.A.S Nagar, Bhutal. (editor@dailyworld.in)