Nashamukt Gram Panchayat Puraskar Yojana (Madhya Pradesh)

What is the Nashamukt Gram Panchayat Puraskar Yojana?

Nashamukt Gram Panchayat Puraskar Yojana is an award scheme of the Government of Madhya Pradesh that pays Rs 1,00,000 to a gram panchayat certified as free of liquor, tobacco and other intoxicants. The Social Justice and Disabled Welfare Department introduced the award in 2018, alongside its older de-addiction and social-defence work such as counselling centres and nasha mukti kendras.

The award is deliberately built around the panchayat, not the individual. Madhya Pradesh's reasoning is straightforward: a single family giving up liquor does not change a village, but a gram sabha that shuts down local sale, refuses new licences and keeps a watch on illicit supply does. The scheme is often written in Hindi as नशामुक्त ग्राम पंचायत पुरस्कार योजना, and readers searching that spelling are looking at the same award.

What the award is meant to do

• Give a village a concrete reason to pass and then hold to a drug-free resolution.
• Put a public, dated marker on panchayats that have actually stopped local sale.
• Fund the next round of awareness work from the prize money itself.

Who is eligible for the Nashamukt Gram Panchayat award?

A gram panchayat can be considered if:

• The panchayat is a constituted gram panchayat of Madhya Pradesh.
• The gram sabha has passed a resolution declaring the panchayat area drug-free, covering liquor, tobacco and other intoxicants.
• No liquor shop or other outlet for intoxicants operates inside the panchayat boundary.
• The Janpad Panchayat CEO's verification report supports the claim on the ground.

Who is not eligible:

• Individual residents cannot apply. There is no personal cash benefit under this scheme, and no household form.
• A panchayat where a licensed liquor outlet still operates inside the boundary is not eligible, however active its awareness work has been.
• Self-help groups, NGOs, schools and youth clubs cannot apply in their own name. They can support a panchayat's claim, but the award and the money go to the gram panchayat.
• Urban wards under a nagar palika or nagar nigam are outside the scheme, which is written for panchayats.

How to apply for the Nashamukt Gram Panchayat award

There is no online portal and no individual form. The route is institutional and runs through the panchayat itself.

1. Convene the gram sabha and pass a written resolution declaring the panchayat area nashamukt. Record the date, the quorum and the signatures in the gram sabha proceedings register.
2. Prepare the claim file with the Panchayat Secretary, the resolution, a joint certificate from the Sarpanch and Secretary that no outlet for intoxicants operates in the area, and, where the district asks for it, a report from the local police station on excise and NDPS cases.
3. Submit the file to the Janpad Panchayat CEO at the block office. The block office is the first checkpoint and inspects the claim on the ground.
4. Follow the district screening. The verified proposal moves to the district collectorate, where the Deputy Director or Joint Director of Social Justice and the CEO of the District Panchayat examine it before the collector approves it.
5. Receive the award at the district function, usually held around Republic Day on 26 January. The Rs 1,00,000 is credited to the gram panchayat's own bank account.

Because the checklist and formats are set district by district, the single most useful thing a Sarpanch can do before starting is to ask the Janpad Panchayat CEO for the current year's proposal format in writing.

What documents does a panchayat need?

How is the money supposed to be used?

The Rs 1,00,000 is an award to the panchayat, not income for any office-bearer. In practice districts expect it to be booked in the panchayat's accounts and spent on village works or on continued awareness activity: wall writing, sports and youth events, or support to the block de-addiction centre. Distributing the amount among panchayat representatives would be an audit objection, and the panchayat secretary is the person answerable for how it is recorded.

Why panchayat claims get rejected

• A liquor outlet still operating inside the panchayat boundary, even under a valid excise licence, defeats the claim.
• Resolution without a date or quorum in the gram sabha register, the most common paperwork failure.
• Excise or NDPS cases registered in the panchayat during the review period.
• No block-level verification, because the file was sent straight to the district instead of through the Janpad Panchayat.
• Bank account of the panchayat inactive or with mismatched details, which stalls the credit even after approval.

Where to raise a grievance

• Directorate of Social Justice and Divyangjan Empowerment, Bhopal: 0755-2556916
• Email: dir.socialjustice@mp.gov.in
• CM Helpline: 181, which accepts complaints against any Madhya Pradesh department, including a district that has not acted on a panchayat proposal
• Deputy Director or Joint Director, Social Justice at the district collectorate, who is the first appeal point for a rejected proposal

A note on completeness: Madhya Pradesh has not published a consolidated scheme booklet for this award with a statewide quota, a scoring sheet or a notified application window. The Rs 1,00,000 award amount, the 2018 introduction and the district-level selection route are what can be confirmed. Anyone preparing a proposal should treat the Janpad Panchayat CEO's current-year format as the authoritative checklist rather than any figure quoted online.