Telangana: NGT lessons for 950 sarpanches

HYDERABAD: Some 950 village sarpanches and panchayat secretaries of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s home district of Medak might have cleared class X, but now will have to learn the ropes with the district administration making them memorise all tough rules of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
They were given 200 pages of booklets on rules on air, water, noise pollution as well as afforestation.The panchayat raj department is also conducting practical classes.
“All of them have been asked to memorise after receiving the copies and understand their importance. This is being done as part of the 30-day village development plan,” district panchayat officer Hanok told TOI. Among the sarpanches, very few of them are graduates while 90% are class X passed.
The panchayat raj department is conducting practical classes on how to segregate waste, collection of plastic, etc., as per NGT rules. “People in the villages may not be knowing what is NGT and its role. Our effort is to make sarpanches well versed with the rules,” an official said.
The department had earlier involved self-help group women, field assistants, elected representatives in gram panchayats and panchayat secretaries to curb usage of polythene and synthetic covers. As part of the drive, the district administration collected 55,000 kg of plastic from across the district.