JAMMU, Jan 11: In the times of power crises and higher electricity dues, the village Palli in Jammu region has set an example of being a model village with a total of all 340 households deriving power supply from the solar plant installed in this village.

The model Panchyat Palli is located at around 18 kms from Jammu City and is adjacent to Bari Brahamana in the outskirts of Jamu city.

 The Palli Panchayat was declared as ‘model panchayat’ by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi during his visit to Palli village in 2022 on the occasion of ‘Panchayat Divas’.

 This panchayat of village Palli is India’s first ‘Carbon Neutral Panchayat’. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to this model panchayat in 2022, had dedicated to the village a 500 KV solar plant.

 Around 340 households of the Palli village have been meeting their power demands from this solar plant which was dedicated by the Prime Minister Modi in 2022 on the occasion of ‘Panchayat Divas’.  

The Palli Panchayat, India’s first ‘Carbon Neutral Panchayat’, is equipped with all eco-friendly measures. All the households in this panchayat have solar cookers, solar street lights, solar pumps for irrigating the fields, e-rickshaw, e-buses etc.

“The power supply to 340 households in our village is being supplied by solar power plant,” Sarpanch of Palli, Randhir Sharma told Rising Kashmir, while adding, “there are 473 families in the village and all the remaining households will soon be provided power through solar power plant”.

The people of Palli have now provided land to the government for installing another solar power plant of 620 MW to meet the power needs of the model village.

“We approached the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha who assured us that funds would be made available by March this year for setting up another 620 MW solar plant at Palli,” the Sarpanch said.

The Palli Village has solar street lights, solar pumps for irrigating fields, all the Anganwadi centers, panchayat ghars and schools have solar cookers and solar plants . Moreover, 12 -15 e-richwas, e-buses have been running in India's first ‘Carbon Neutral Panchayat’ of Palli.

“We have provided land to the government for setting up another 620 MW solar plant at Palli” the sarpanch said, adding, “LG has assured us that funds would be available after March.”

 "People of Palli have helped in the project. They have also provided food to people engaged in the project," he said.

During his visit, The prime minister had said that Palli has shown the way to the country for achieving a carbon neutral state. "People of Palli have helped in the project. They have also provided food to people engaged in the project," he said.

All the 1,500 solar panels put up on the total area of 6,408 square metres will provide clean electricity to 340 houses in the model panchayat under the central government's Gram Urja Swaraj' programme, officials said.

The residents of Palli in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba border district are upbeat over the Prime Minister's vist to their village. They term this day as the "red letter day" in India's modern history of development and transformation.

From the macadamised roads to the recently launched electric bus service, the village located just 17 kms from the winter capital Jammu is witnessing a major transformation with an upgraded Panchayat Ghar, renovated government high school building, a new pond and improved playfield. D

The village has three ponds, Sarovers , now and the taps have not dried up in the village, the Sarpanch said. With renovation of these ponds (sarovars), in our village, the water level in our village has not gone down and the taps have not gone dry as was witnessed earlier, the Sarpanch said.