NEW DELHI: Eli Ahmad, 81, from Assam has been selected for the Padma Shri award for running the only magazine for women in the Northeast since 1970. She is also credited with establishing the first film institute in the Northeast.
“Highway Messiah” Dr Subroto Das has also been named for Padma Shri for his pioneering work in bringing medical relief to accident victims on national highways.
Das, 51, who hails from Gujarat started the Lifeline Foundation after he met with an accident. Presently, he provides emergency medical services on the highway network spanning 4,000 km in Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
The Padma Shri award list in the unsung category also includes Anuradha Koirala, a 67-year Nepalese woman, who has been instrumental in rescuing and rehabilitating 12,000 sex trafficking victims and preventing 45,000 others from being trafficked. The SSB has also partnered with the Maiti Nepal, an organisation founded by her, for checking trafficking along the Indo-Nepal border.
Karimul Haque (52), a tea garden worker popularly known as “Ambulance Dada” from West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, will also be honoured with the Padma Shri for converting his bike into an ambulance offering a 24X7 service. Haque innovated the bike ambulance after he could not save his mother due to lack of such an emergency vehicle.