Assam govt honours 5 officers, their teams for public service

Five officials and their teams have been awarded by the Assam government for their exemplary public service.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma gave away the Karmashree Awards at a function to mark the Civil Services Day on Thursday evening.

Among the awardees are Kokrajhar and Cachar deputy commissioners Varnali Deka and Keerthi Jalli, and Sivsagar ADC Bitupan Neog.

Managing director of Assam Power Distribution Corporation Ltd Rakesh Kumar and Manager, District Poultry Farm, Japjapkuchi, Dr. Ambika Deka also received the award.

"Delighted to present #Karmashree Awards to 5 Govt officials and respective teams for their outstanding public service on #CivilServicesDay," Sarma tweeted after conferring the recognition.

"I hope the awards will motivate them to continue with their good work and also inspire others to work hard for public welfare," he added.

Karmashree Award winner Varnali Deka was also conferred the Prime Minister's Award 2020 for the innovative work done at Goalpara in the Aspirational District Category during her stint as the deputy commissioner there.

The award, given away at a program in New Delhi on Thursday, recognized the wide-based efforts made for Goalpara to achieve saturation in many key performance indicators in health and nutrition, education, basic infrastructure, financial inclusion, and skill development, and agriculture and water resources.

Deka also participated as a key panelist in the discussion on the 'Aspirational District Programme - Saturation Programme' held on the occasion.

Another IAS officer from the state, M S Lakshmi Priya, received the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration, 2021, at the same program.

She was awarded for the initiative, 'Sampoorna', in the 'Innovation-District' category during her posting as deputy commissioner of Bongaigaon.

Project Sampoorna is aimed at reducing malnutrition among children in the Bongaigaon district and employs a decentralized, technology-based model using community participation and women empowerment to achieve the result.

It has successfully brought 95.6 percent of malnourished children to a normal state in just one year.

Lakshmi Priya was recently promoted and posted as Managing Director, National Health Mission, Assam.