Nengcha Lhouvum feted with excellence award

'It is Gods grace that I have received the prestigious Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Public Administration', says Nengcha Lhouvum, IFS Indian Ambassador to Lebanon.

She was the first Indian Foreign Service Officer who has been awarded the Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

She was among four recipients of the prestigious award for the year 2007-08 in the individual category which was presented by the Vice President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari in a solemn function of the fourth Civil Services Day held at Vigyan Bhawan here on Tuesday.

Nengcha was honoured with the award for her crucial role in evacuating Indian Nationals from Beirut during 2006 Hezbollah war in Lebanon.

In a felicitation ceremony of Nengcha Lhouvum, IFS held at Nivedita Kunj, Ram Krishna Puram here on Tuesday evening organized by the Kuki Students Organisation, Delhi, she narrated that she was posted as Indian Ambassador to Lebanon four years ago in the year 2005 .

She did no know that the war could happen in the year 2006.When the war broke out, there was no time to think or to chalk out the plan for evacuating the Indian Nationals.

Everything was done at the moment.

Luckily, everything went on smoothly, she recalled.

Indians, like Nationals of other countries, were being forced to leave after Israel went on the offensive against the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah.

During the evacuation of stranded Indians in Lebanon with more than 500 boarding the Indian warship INS Mumbai at Beirut harbour en route to Larnaca, Nengcha Lhouvum herself was at the jetty to supervise operations.

With no let-up in the Israeli pounding and people desperate to get out of Beirut, Nengcha had a huge job on hand.

As India's Ambassador to Lebanon, she had to oversee the evacuation of some 12,000 Indian Nationals and other Nationals of India's neighbourhoods like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka caught in the Israel-Hezbollah fight.

Apart from the around 12,000 Indians, South Asian expatriates in Lebanon included 60,000 Sri Lankans and 10,000 Bangladeshis.

There were 30,000 Nationals from the Philippines.

While the boarding of the ship went off smoothly, the procedures that preceded it were cumbersome.

'It is not an ordinary situation here.

But we are putting in our best effort, its my duty', Nengcha had told The Indian Express over phone from Beirut.

''Anybody in my place would have done the same.

Its team work, don't forget that'', was her words, characteristically humble to the core.

It was another matter that she had a very small team in Beirut: they were just nine, including the Embassy's security guards.

With such meagre resources at her disposal she was able to achieve so much.

Hailing from Kangpokpi in Manipur, Nengcha Lhouvum studied in Shillong and Miranda House in Delhi University and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1980.Nengcha landed in Beirut in March 2005 with batch mate and husband Gautam Mukhopadhyay in Damascus, as the Indian envoy to Syria. In fact, husband and wife coordinated the evacuation of the first lot of Indians via road to Damascus.

Born to Hatkholhing and SL Palal on 18.05.1957, Nengcha Lhouvum married Gautam Mukhopadhyay in a Church in Paris on 29.03.1985 .

They had two children namely Maya (Lhingneichong) 20 and Mihir (Chonmang) 17 years respectively.

Before posting as Indian Ambassador to Lebanon , he held different posts namely, Joint Secretary in Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), New Delhi; Deputy Consul General in New York; Director in MEA, New Delhi; First Secretary in Indian Embassy , Cuba; Second Secretary in Indian High Commission, Bangladesh and Third Secretary in Indian Embassy, Mexico.

She also spoke Spanish and Bengali fluently.

As Joint Secretary (South East Asia and ASEAN) in MEA during the Narasimha Rao Government, she actively promoted the Look East policy.

Later, she played a key role in organizing the first Indo-ASEAN car rally in 2004 .

Mention may be made that Prime Ministers Awards for Excellence in Public Administration was introduced in the year 1975 in order to motivate the Civil Servants by recognizing the extraordinary and innovative work done by the officers of the Central and State Governments to give their best in the service of the people.

All officers of the Central and State Governments individually or as a group or as organizations are eligible for the awards.

The award comprises of a medal, a scroll and a cash award of Rs.1.00 lakh.

More than two hundred nominations are received every year.

Of these, only a few are finally short listed for consideration.

This year the Awards went to four individuals including Nengcha Lhouvum, IFS, India's Ambassador to Lebanon.