Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 8: Deputy Commissioner Rajouri Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary along with Deputy Commissioner Udhampur Ravindra Kumar and DC Hyderabad Yogita Rana, a Jammuite, received the National Award on women empowerment from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister awarded 10 District Collectors from across the country for their exceptional performances in various sectors of women empowerment, girl child education and community engagement initiatives at the national level event on International Women’s Day organised at Jhunjunu Rajasthan. The National Awards were presented in 3 different categories.
The award was presented to Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary and Ravindra Kumar in the category “Enabling Girl Child Education”. A number of steps taken for providing better educational atmosphere to girl students and outreach activities promoting girl education were recognised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.
It is pertinent to mention here that Dr Shahid earlier planned and implemented Project Rahat under which 125 bridges were constructed in 2015-16 and more than 600 toilets were constructed for schools in far flung areas under convergence. Meanwhile, 82 bridges were constructed in Rajouri this fiscal.
DC Ravindra Kumar organised a number of awareness camps under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao which included community engagement, camps in schools and providing better amenities to girl students. A number of activities are being organised by various departments in Udhampur.
Likewise, several innovations initiated by District Administration, Rajouri which included special library for girl students, adoption of girl hostels, provision of scholarships and sports kits to girl students, competitions and interventions have been published among best practices on BBBP a national document which was released by the Prime Minister.
Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, Ministers in Rajasthan Government, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development GoI, and other senior officers were present at the award ceremony.
Other District Collectors awarded at the event included from States of Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Yogita Rana and IAS officer from Jammu, posted as DC Hyderabad (Telangana) was also felicitated in the same function on being adjudged as one among 10 best DCs of India.
Yogita was one among only two women collectors of the country bestowed upon with this rare feat for her outstanding contribution towards the three initiatives related with the dream project “Beti Padao, Beti Bachao”.
On an earlier count also in the year 2016, she received best District Collector award from the Government of Telangana while being associated with project UMEED in recognition to her work facilitating increase in the green cover in district. Nizamabad. Moreover, in the year 2016, she also bagged national award from the Union Ministry of Rural development for her stupendous work taken up under MNREGA in Nizamabad district.