Himachal's zila parishad gets national award

New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) A zila parishad of Himachal Pradesh Wednesday received a national award for adopting innovative measures to strengthen panchayati raj institutions, the village-level third-tier of governance, a statement said.

Union Minister for Panchayati Raj V. Kishore Chandra presented the Rajiv Gandhi Shashaktikaran Puraskar to Kullu Zila Parishad chairman H.C. Sharma at a function here to mark the National Panchayati Raj Divas, the government statement said.

An award of Rs.40 lakh and an appreciation letter was presented to Sharma.

The zila parishad has won the national award second time in a row.

Last year, it received a cash award of Rs.25 lakh for its achievements in various sectors.

The parishad has earmarked its 25 percent budget for sanitation programmes, said the statement quoting Sharma as saying.

He said the zila parishad had generated a revenue of Rs.665,960 in 2011-12, which was Rs.174,566 higher than 2010-11.