Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Sunday received the Incremental Devolution Index Award 2015-16 for providing maximum power to the panchayats.
State Panchayati Raj secretary Deoranjan Singh received the award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day held in Jamshedpur.
Odisha shared the award with Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim.
Speaking on the occasion, Singh said the state government had given enough funds for the development of the village panchayats. Besides, the 14th Finance Commission and 4th State Finance Commission have recommended maximum grant for the village panchayats, he added.
He also said the state government has provided a part of profit from paddy procurement at the Regulated Market Committee (RMC) and the share of profit of the village haats to the village panchayats.
Apart from this, plans are afoot to give administrative and financial power to all 6,211 village panchayats to make them self-reliant, he informed.