Pragathinagar Gram Panchayath in Qutbullapur Mandal of Rangareddy district is an ideal one for emulation by others. Under the visionary leadership of Mr. Dayakar Reddy, Mr. Sudheer Reddy and Mr. Sreeramulu the panchayath has gone from strength to strength in its implementation of a pro-environment agenda. The current sarpanch Mrs. Jonnalagadda Lakshmi Kumari has contributed to quite a few innovative and creative ideas in making the panchayath really a "Green" one. With the assistance of HUDA more than 3600 plants have been planted along raodside since 1994 and now the entire panchayath has a very clean and green ambience. For the past 6 years they are promoting clay Ganesha worship and in fact have mastered the art of insitu creation of 6 feet plus clay ganesha in the temple premise itself. With their own resources they are in the process of setting up a sewage treatment plant and are exploring the options of recycling the waste water as well. It is heartening to note that they have a system in place to fine upto Rs.5,000 those people who resort to felling of trees in the panchayath area without seeking prior permission.
The bin culture has also been introduced in the panchayath with dry waste and wet waste being segregated at household. However, the entire waste is being dumped in a single dumpayard in the outskirts of the panchyath, thus defeating the purpose of segregation. The dumpayard is also becoming a potential source of spreading communicable diseases with water stagnation, mosquito breeding, pig population growth, etc There is no revenue to the panchayath on account of introduction of the bin culture. On 24th August 2009, myself and Mrs. Ramalakshmi visited Pragathinagar and spent some quality time in the panchayath. They have more than 6 parks, a gym, sports complex (swimming, tennis, shuttle badminton) - all of which promote a healthy living culture. We also proposed to start a nature club in the school and this suggestion was accepted by the Sarpanch and others readily.
The Wealth Out of Waste (WOW) program has been launched in Pragathinagar by us in collaboration with ITC Bhadrachalam by giving away the collection bags to the Sarpanch and other members. The newsitem published in today's Sakshi Telugu Daily newspaper is given above. Pragathinagar is going to get greater visibility when a team from the panchayath would be sharing their experiences at an international conference on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability to be held in Chennai by University of Madras and Government of Canada
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