3 state depts bag SKOCH awards; CM congratulates

KOLKATA: A number of departments in the state, including the School Education and Higher Education, the Forest department and Technical Education, Training and Skill Development department won the prestigious SKOCH awards.

The news of the School Education and Higher Education department winning the awards was shared by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her twitter handle. "Proud moment for #Bengal!. School Education Department and Higher Education Department of GoWB - both have won the prestigious SKOCH GOLD awards. Heartiest congratulations to all officials and members for this remarkable achievement!" Banerjee tweeted.

"The credit goes to our Chief Minister for her vision and pro-people measures. Bengal has seen a transformation under her leadership in the last ten years,"Education minister Bratya Basu said.

The State Forest department has won the SKOCH Silver award for protection of the coastal districts of West Bengal with mangrove and associate species plantation. The coastal belt had been damaged by back-to-back severe cyclones Amphan (May 2020) and Yaas (June 2021) hitting the state. "We have taken up the task of restoration of the mangrove cover in the coastal belt and have already planted over 11.5 crore mangrove. The work has been done on a war footing and this award is an acknowledgement of our efforts," state Forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick said.

The Technical Education, Training and Skill Development department has bagged the SKOCH Silver award for its e-learning in response to COVID while the West Bengal State Council of Technical and Vocational Education & Skill Development has won SKOCH Gold award for its online proctored examination for polytechnics.

The state Tourism department has also received the SKOCH Gold award for transformational performance during COVID 19 on Saturday. The SKOCH Award covers the best of efforts in digital, financial and social inclusion.