Gangadevipalli Model Village

In 1993, as Gangadevipalli was getting noticed, Bala Vikasa, an NGO, walked in with a proposal. The village had severe water scarcity and the NGO offered to build two water tanks. The only condition was that the villagers would have to bear 15% of the cost, which was ₹52,500.

Sarpanch Koosam Rajamouli, then a youth leader, called a meeting and placed the proposal before the people. But they were suspicious. When the government was not helping, why should a private organisation do so? Rajamouli, however, did not give up.

“Be it the water tanks, toilets in every home or the bare necessities, we believed in unity,” he says. “It was not easy to bring everyone together, but we did not give up. When they saw the results of working together and recognised the need for development, the critics, too, started joining us.”

Once the tanks were built and people started getting tap water in their houses, the doubting Thomases wanted to join. Rajamouli said yes, but added a condition. The original price for a water connection was ₹1,000 but, as a fine, they would have to pay ₹1,500 and the next lot would have to pay ₹2,000.

Rajamouli soon formed 25 committees for water, health, street lights, etc. The members change every two years and new members are elected by a voice vote. Each committee has ten members, and each member looks after the requirements of ten families.

“The committees have given a sense of responsibility to the villagers,” says Rajamouli. “Every committee has women on the team except for the street lighting committee, which involves late nights and pole-climbing. We did not want to do it for any award. We did it because we wanted to be a model village.”

Singareddy Shoury Reddy, executive director of Bala Vikasa, says: “We stressed the need for asset-based community development. We motivated everyone to contribute in the development works and this became the root of the achievements of this village.”

• 1995 – Impressed by civic sense, the government upgraded it to a special panchayat.
• 2007 – Adjudged India's best panchayat by the Union government.
• State Government – Included a lesson on Gangadevipalli in 6th standard Social Studies textbook.
• Chief Minister's Grant – ₹100 million (Dh5.6 million) for development, including a 100 KV power plant and a residential school; two-bedroom houses for landless families; target to become mosquito-free.
• Prime Minister's Inspiration – The village inspired the launch of the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (Model Village scheme).

The village has attracted representatives from various states within India and from other countries. It is now setting new benchmarks in community development and inspiring people from all walks of life. The visionary, committed, selfless and effective leadership has transformed a normal backward village into a model village in terms of cent per cent development and self-reliance.