New Delhi, Oct 17: President Pratibha Patil will today give away the ‘Nirmal Gram Puraskar’ to the sarpanches of 3209 villages of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The award giving ceremony will be held in Hisar, Haryana, the state, which stands first in the awards tally. Gujarat is a close second.

''Nirmal Gram Puraskar'' is a community-based incentive scheme, which had been started by the Central Government as one of the major initiatives for the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) attaining full sanitation coverage. (ANI)