CM Sarbananda Sonowal presents Anundoram Borooah Award 2020 to meritorious students

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday presented Anundoram Borooah Award 2020 to students who secured 75 per cent or above in HSLC examination 2020 at a programme held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra.

As part of the award, an amount of Rs 20,000 each was directly transferred to bank accounts of 16,944 students for purchasing laptops. The Chief Minister transferred the amounts through the press of a button while ceremonially presenting cheques and certificates to 5 students. A total of Rs 34 crore has been released by the government for the purpose.

This year, the State government has not given the students the option of availing laptops instead of cash due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

"Young students must strive hard to acquire knowledge, which is power in this age of globalization, to achieve success in life. Even fertile lands must be tilled for increasing agricultural production and therefore, youth must harness their latent talents to achieve full potential to benefit the society. The successful students in HSLC must consistently endeavour to achieve excellence in the future as well" the Chief Minister said.

Addressing the students, State Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "The scheme was introduced in the 2005 budget and was implemented on November of the same year at the Assam Judges Field. Since 2005, a total of 3,73,855 students have been benefited from the scheme."

Sarma stressed that the scheme had received a lot of criticism prior to implementation. "People were critical how laptops and computers will be useful as many students are deprived of electricity. However, in 2005, only 20 students said that they need cash amount instead of the computers," Sarma said.

"The scheme was introduced to make the students aware about the benefits of digitization. Laptops and personal computers can play a vital role in a student's life. The Anundoram Borooah Award is a shining scheme of the Assam government," Sarma added.

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