499 Gram Panchayat offices free of plastic in Siddipet

District Gram Panchayat Officer Devaki Devi proposed the idea of a steel bank.

Siddipet: An idea by the District Gram Panchayat Officer (DPO) in Siddipet has helped in making 499 gram panchayat offices in the district free of plastic.

Since gram panchayat offices organise meetings regularly apart from hosting various department officials to the gram panchayat, DPO Devaki Devi had proposed the idea of a steel bank.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, Devaki Devi said the idea of a steel bank, coined by former Minister T Harish Rao, was a great success in Siddipet town. Drawing inspiration from the idea, she had instructed all panchayat secretaries to buy a steel bank with funds available in the panchayat or with the support of donors in February 2023. Following this, all the 499 panchayats in the district now own steel banks. Each steel bank has steel glasses, tea glasses, lunch plates, steel bottles and other steelware, which can be washed and re-used multiple times.

The panchayat staff serve tea, water, food, breakfast and everything on steel plates during all meetings, thus doing away with the use of plastic. When the then State government launched the Kanti Velugu programme last year, the panchayat had taken up the responsibility of serving food to doctors and staff during the eye testing camps. Unless there was a steel bank in the panchayats, the DPO said that they would have used 3.65 lakh plates, and 1.50 lakh tea cups apart from others only during Kanti Velugu.

Meanwhile, the idea also brought a change in the personal lives of panchayat secretaries, sarpanchs and ward members which slowly fuelled a change in the villages as well. When panchayat secretaries took up protests boycotting duties, they used to bring their own steel plates and glasses to the protest venue to have lunch as the idea left a deep impact on their minds.

Devaki Devi was appreciated for her work by Harish Rao and BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar as well. She now has plans to replicate it in all 26 mandal parishads shortly with the support of officials and elected representatives. Since mandal parishads hold regular meetings, they can avoid using a huge amount of plastic by buying a steel bank, she said, adding that she wanted to replicate the idea at caste-based community halls as well with the help of those communities.