GUWAHATI, Dec 11 - Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi today presented the Krishna Kanta Handiqui National Award 2017 to former Chief Election Commissioner of India Hari Shankar Brahma in a function organised at Pragjyoti Cultural Complex. The Krishna Kanta Handiqui National Fellowship was jointly conferred on mountaineer Anshu Jamsenpa and writer Sharmistha Pritam.
Brahma, a successful 1975-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, was the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) from January 16, 2015 to April 19, 2015.
He was appointed as the Election Commissioner in August 2010. He has overseen two Lok Sabha elections and at least one round of Assembly election in every state.
The award carries Rs 5 lakh, a citation and a memento.
Speaking on the occasion, Governor Mukhi lauded the role of open education in transforming lives and promoting a feeling of inclusiveness.
�Through this award and fellowship programme, the Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University has shown a very good example of its commitment towards society. Other programmes of the educational institution, like its more than 300 study centres across the State and its initiative to facilitate education opportunities to the jail inmates, are also laudable,� he stated.
In his acceptance speech, Brahma said that the future of the State depended on human resources and education will play a very important role in it. �All the problems linked to us are mostly due to poor education, be it health and hygiene, high infant and maternal mortality rate, low life expectancy or unemployment.
�Moreover, in today�s highly competitive world, we have to be better educated technically and academically to survive,� he added.
Anshu Jamsenpa, who holds the world record of double ascent of Mount Everest in a span of five days, in her speech urged the Centre to come up with a well-defined policy for promoting mountaineering and adventure sports.
The other recipient of the fellowship, Sharmistha Pritam, is a well-known writer who is suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy disease since her childhood.
�I�ve had hardships in my life and challenges of all sorts. However, I believe that the more challenges we have, the better we understand life,� she said adding that no issues inflicting the human race can be solved without learning to love the people and Nature.
Earlier, University Vice Chancellor Dr Hitesh Deka spoke on the vision and achievements of the varsity.
The fellowship contains Rs six lakh for each of the recipients for a span of two years, a citation and a memento each.
With its APJ Abdul Kalam Students� Welfare Mission fund constituted with contributions from the employees of the University, five female candidates appearing for the UPSC (Mains) were given the scholarship of Rs 1 lakh each. The students are Yashodhara Das, Bipasa Kalita, Soma Roy, Namrata Barua and Shamma Parwin.