Governor’s Award and State Level Essay Competition ceremony

Governor of Assam and Nagaland, Prof Jagdish Mukhi, his wife, CM Neiphiu Rio along with the Awardees- Tizu Valley Biodiversity Conservation & Livelihood Network Zunheboto and Kripa foundation, Kohima during the Governor’s Award ceremony at at Raj Bhavan, Kohima on March 17. (DIPR Photo)

Kohima, March 17 (MExN): A ceremony for the Governor’s Award and State Level Essay Competition was held at Raj Bhavan, Kohima on March 17. Governor of Assam and Nagaland, Prof Jagdish Mukhi in his address said, “Excellence is not a result of wishful thinking, sheer luck or happenstance. It is rather the culmination of concrete goals, hard and smart work aligned with those goals and judicious decisions.”

A press release issued by the PRO Raj Bhavan, Kohima said, Mukhi stressed that this awards have been instituted to honour and recognize the individuals for their exemplary initiatives and contribution to the society, besides reflecting the overall vision of the government to encourage citizens to achieve their aspirations.

He added, that the ‘Governors Award’ has been be conferred to three individuals in essay competition and two group winners in different categories- The Tizu Valley Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Network Zunheboto for Creating Social Awareness on Conservation of Environment and protection, the Kripa foundation, Kohima for Creating Social Impact and Awareness on Prevailing Social Ills and its Amelioration and the three winners of State Level Essay Competition - Mariam, Class 10 BHSS, Mankolemba, Loni S Shikhu, Mount Mary College, Dimapur and Yiben B Humtsoe, Wokha.

Congratulating the awardees he stressed on the importance of climate change and environmental degradation which pose a huge challenge to life. He said, “Today, we have an increasing number of global forums where we are discussing environment protection, biodiversity conservation, carbon sinks and green growth. And yet, despite extensive knowledge on the subject, we are witnessing receding forests area and shrinking of biodiversity to rapidly melting glaciers and ice caps, extreme weather events.”

He appealed that, efforts to spread awareness must be stepped up and each one of us will have to contribute to this task of conservation of nature and environment. This should become a people's movement, in which local bodies, civil society and NGOs should participate.

He also briefed on our National Environment Policy adopted in 2006 which promotes the adoption of cleaner technology and bio-friendly disposal of waste and the proposal to launch a massive afforestation project.

Mukhi also stressed on the damage caused by the social ills prevailing in our society, the menace of drug abuse is another grappling global challenge therefore, he urged both the Government and the civil society to ensure that the potential victims are made aware of the perils of drug abuse.

He also reminded that the best solution is prevention and we need to prevent people, particularly the youngsters from falling to prey to substance abuse.

Acknowledging the winners of the essay competition, he said, the winners today has illustrated a strong proficiency in writing. Their essays reflected the ability to develop a strong argument, to be clear and coherent, to achieve accuracy in language and form, and perhaps most importantly, the winning essays illustrated a capacity for critical reflection and creative thinking trending in our society.

Published in The Morung Express