Hyderabad: Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Sitaram Yechury was in for a shock on Friday when a driver from Pragathinagar gram panchayat asked him to stop smoking as the colony is an alcohol and tobacco-free area.

The politburo member of the Communist Party of India, who was in the city for a Central committee meeting, politely obliged and threw away his cigarette. V. Venkatesh, driver of the gram panchayat vice-president, said, “Smoking in the open is banned in Pragathinagar. All residents follow this rule. I asked Mr Yechury to throw his cigarette. He immediately did so and said, ‘I like it’.”

Pragathinagar, with a population of 40,000 residents, is a true example of a “model colony”. The 850-acre colony, including the Ambir Cherruvu of 180 acres and 6,750 trees, is free of alcohol, tobacco, plastic, gutka and carbonated drinks. Residents are fined up to Rs 10,000 for cutting trees. Vendors are penalised for littering. Shopkeepers are fined for cheating on weights.

Ch. Sudheer Reddy, vice-president of the gram panchayat, said, “My first duty every day is to look at the complaint book placed at the panchayat office. Action is taken on the same day. None of the 400 shops in Pragathinagar are permitted to sell cigarettes, gutka or carbonated drinks. There are no wine shops. The gram panchayat has a staff of 70 employees, of whom, 27 look after security.

All complaints are addressed to the VP and the violators are fined immediately. In case the person is unable to pay the fine, properties are seized in case of vendors. For residents, facilities like water and electricity are stopped.

Pragathinagar, was founded in 1991 for the Hyderabad Allwyn employees and had 725 allotted plots. Previously, it was under the Bachupally gram panchayat, but in 1992, led by D. Dayakar Reddy, founder, the employees won the case and formed a separate panchayat.

No contractors were involved in the construction of the colony as all the employees had diplomas in mechanical engineering and architectural knowledge. The panchayat is divided into 16 wards, eight of them governed by women.

Well-managed garbage plan:

While the GHMC is struggling to deal with day to day garbage disposal, Pragathinagar, has developed its own way of dealing with collection, segregation and disposal of garbage.

Every day, a team of 20 women supervisors along with the garbage collection men, visit 9,000 families with two trucks. The residents are asked to segregate the green and plastic waste at home. The women supervisors make note of families not segregating waste and penalise them. Green waste is decomposed and then used as manure. The plastic waste is disposed off in a scientific manner. A separate sewerage treatment plant is constructed near the lake so that no waste leaks into it.

The property tax revenue from the gram panchayat is around Rs 1.5 crore annually, of which, 12 per cent is earmarked for sanitation. It is the only panchayat that offers provident fund to its 70 employees who draw a salary of Rs 10,000 each. Every house gets 500 litres of drinking water every day and is billed accordingly. Society members have laid a pipeline from JNTU and an underground drainage pipeline.

No illegalities allowed here:

Currently, the colony has 15 CCTVs, while 50 more will be added next month. The gram panchayat official ensures that there is no illegal construction or even a minor deviation from the construction plan. Banned material sold is seized and destroyed. Recently , officials seized carbonated drinks, plastic glasses and gutka packets. The colony has a swimming pool, tennis court, cricket ground, two halls.

The colony was honoured for being a “Green Panchayat” and received several certificates for bio-diversity. Mr Dayakar Reddy, has requested the 70-member team to give up smoking and implement it in other gram panchayats.

The panchayat has also formed a People’s Trust which runs a school educating 2,200 students and charges nominal fees. The Trust runs a hospital that does not charge for consultation. The fine amount collected by the panchayat is used to run these institutions.