How panchayat of Tamil Nadu's Odanthurai became a model for self-governance

Not content to rest on its laurels of utilising government money well, Odanthurai has also shown the way in income-generation

Odanthurai, a small panchayat 40 km from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, frequently receives visitors from abroad, including some eminent ones such as the president of the World Bank and ministers from some African countries, as also researchers, government officials and students from almost 43 countries. They are not tourists to this peaceful rural locale but have come here to learn how Odanthurai transformed itself into a model of Panchayati Raj.

At a time when people are migrating from villages to urban centres, the population in this 11-village panchayat in Karamadai block has actually risen — from 1,500 in 1996 to nearly