The closing and prize distribution ceremony of “Hindi Chetna Maas 2024” was organized on 30.09.24 at Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun. In this ceremony, prizes and certificates were given to the winners of the competitions organized during Hindi Chetna Maas. The chief guest of the ceremony was Mr. Chandan Sushil Sajan, Secretary, Town Official Language Implementation Committee (Office-02) and the ceremony was presided over by the Director of the Institute, Dr. M. Madhu.

At the beginning of the program, first of all the Director welcomed the Secretary of TOLIC, Shri Chandan Sushil Sajan, by presenting him a bouquet. Thereafter, prizes and certificates were given to the winners of the competitions. During Hindi Chetna Mass, 03 competitions (debate competition, extempore speech competition and self-composed poetry recitation competition) were organized by the Institute in online mode at ICAR level. Their winners and participants also remained connected to this program through zoom meeting.

In this ceremony, the Rajbhasha Shield (Chal Vaijayanti Award) for the best Scientific division was awarded to PME and AKMU Cell of the Institute headquarters for the best performance in official language implementation. In the administrative category, the Rajbhasha Shield (Chal Vaijayanti Award) for the best Administrative section was awarded to Administrative Section-1. Out of the total 08 regional Research Centres of Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre Kota (Rajasthan) in region 'A', Research Centre Vasad (Gujarat) in region 'B' and Research Centre Udhagamandalam (Tamil Nadu) in region 'C' were awarded with Rajbhasha Shield for their best performance in implementation of Rajbhasha.

The Chief Guest of the function, Shri Chandan Sushil Sajan praised the Hindi programmes being organised at the Institute Headquarters and its regional centres as well as at ICAR level and said in his speech that "Hindi is a unique power through which a wide community can be integrated on a public platform. The basic sentiment of the policies made by the Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India is to bind the entire India in the thread of unity through language." He also spoke about the programmes organised by Town Official Language Implementation Committee, Dehradun and thanked the Director of the Institute, Dr. M. Madhu for the cooperation of Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun in these programs.

In his presidential address, the Director of the Institute, Dr. M. Madhu, while congratulating all the award winners, motivated all other personnel to participate enthusiastically in these competitions. He thanked all the scientists, officers and employees of various ICAR institutes for participating in these competitions in large numbers and making the event comprehensive and successful by their presentation in a very attractive manner and expressed his commitment to organize ICAR level competitions by the Institute in future.

This program was coordinated and conducted by the Deputy Director (Official Language) of the Institute, Ashutosh Kumar Tiwari.