J&K's Palli village leads by example; 1,500 solar panels provide clean electricity to 340 homes [details]

Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, inhabitants of Palli village have decided to involve every villager in the campaign to make this hamlet neat and clean. Sarpanch of Palli Panchayat Ravinder Sharma said that Prime Minister's visit to this village has boosted the morale of the inhabitants.

While addressing a historic rally on Sunday at this small hamlet situated on the border of Jammu and Samba district Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Palli village has shown the way to the whole country.

The Prime Minister had reasons to highlight the achievements of his village of Samba district, which has become the first carbon-neutral village in the whole country.

Nestled in the wheat fields on the right side of the Jammu-Pathankot national highway, the mood in the village looked festive as the "Man of the Moment", Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was in their locality to address Panchayat representatives of the country. He had launched this ambitious scheme which provided the Palli residents with clean piped drinking water.

Palli became the country's first 'carbon-neutral Panchayat' when Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation a 500-kilowatt solar plant, installed in a record time of nearly three weeks.

"With the inauguration of a 500 KW solar power plant at Palli, it is moving towards becoming the country's first Panchayat to become carbon-neutral …The people of Palli have demonstrated what 'Sabka Prayas' can do," Modi said.

1500 solar panels installed to provide electricity to 340 houses

1,500 solar panels have been put up in a total area of 6,408 square metres to provide clean electricity to 340 houses in the model Panchayat under the Central Government's 'Gram Urja Swaraj' programme.

With the support of the government, the village has entered into the history of India as the first carbon-neutral solar village.

From the macadamized roads to the recently launched electric bus service, the village located just 18 km from the winter capital Jammu is witnessing a major transformation with an upgraded Panchayat Ghar, renovated Government high school building, a new pond, improved playfields, and electric bus ride.

Palli's Sarpanch Ravinder Sharma, who interacted with the Prime Minister, told him that village has LED bulbs, solar cookers, and solar stoves.

Jal Jeevan Mission fulfills piped water dream of Palli inhabitants

The residents of Palli village in Samba district have expressed gratitude to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for materializing their dream of piped water through Jal Jeevan Mission.

Under this ambitious project of Jal Jeevan Mission, Palli village of Samba has been fully saturated with 448 FHTCs at a cost of Rs. 143.40 lakh. The Palli village water supply project also included a tube well of 6000 Gallons of discharge capacity per hour.

"We have also constructed the sump tank as part of the scheme which is 30,000 gallons of capacity. The water will be stored in a 30,000-gallon capacity sump tank which will suffice the water requirement of Palli village," a senior engineer of J&K Jal Shakti Department said.

Ravinder Sharma, Sarpanch of Palli Panchayat expressed gratitude to PM Narendra Modi for providing piped water connection to every household in his village which was definitely a daunting task.

"We are very happy that we got running water taps for the first time after independence. Earlier, it was a hard task to get water from hand pumps which were a source of various water-borne diseases," Sharma said.

"We were also trained to check water quality on our own. This is the best gift we could get from Prime Minister Modi," he added.

A school teacher and Pani Samiti member of Palli village, Sunaina hailed the Government's initiative to save women from drudgery, particularly school-going girls who had to fetch water from long distances.

"Palli village has witnessed massive development after the inception of Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019. Girls can now invest the time, which they used to spend in fetching water from distant areas, in studies for brighter careers," she said.

A sixteen-year-old Nandini Sharma of Palli village says she has stopped bringing bottled water from home after her school was provided with a pure drinking water supply under Jal Jeevan Mission.