Assam’s highest civilian award for Ratan Tata
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma here on Saturday said that his government has decided to confer highest civilians award — the Asom Baibhav of the state to renowned industrialist Ratan Tata on the occasion of Assam Divas while 18 noted personalities of the state would be decorated with two other categories of civilian awards — Assam Saurav and Assam Gaurav for their contribution in different fields.
He said that the state has decided to confer the Asom Baibhav award to noted industrialist for his exceptional contribution for cancer care in the state.
It is significant that in 2018, the Assam government and Tata Trusts laid the foundation stone for a comprehensive cancer care network of 19 facilities in the state. The operation was estimated to become functional by 2019 and was initiated with the aim that no citizen of the state has to travel more than a few hours to get proper cancer care treatments.
Out of the 19 facilities, 12 have been established on premises of Government Medical College, ensuring affordable treatment.
The Tata push to the cancer care facilities helped the government in utilizing several health schemes by providing a robust platform. Similar to the initiative taken for Assam, Mr Tata has proposed plans for the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Odisha.
The project in Assam was a joint effort of Tata Trusts and the Assam government. The total corpus for the three-tier project – L1: State Level Hospitals, L2: State-level medical colleges, L3: District level hospitals – was `2,200 crore, which was equally divided among the two parties.