16,335 students take part in 9th State Level Painting Competition organized by NHPC

GANGTOK, 12 Nov: 16335 students of 241 schools from all the four districts competed at the 9th State Level Painting Competition held at Chintan Bhawan this morning.
The top three winners of the state level painting competition who have been selected from the school levels are given the opportunity to compete at the national level painting competition held annually at New Delhi.
It may be informed that the painting competition that is conducted at three levels, school, state and national is conceptualized by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the Ministry of Power which is also the nodal agency for conducting the painting competition throughout the country.
Further, BEE has entrusted NHPC Ltd to organize the same in five states including Sikkim with manager (HR), NHPC, RK Verma, being nominated as the nodal officer for Sikkim.
Speaking to NOW! today the nodal officer, RK Verma informed that NHPC has been organizing the same in Sikkim in collaboration with HRDD, Govt of Sikkim for almost a decade now with an aim to sensitize students about energy conservation as energy saved is equal to energy produced.
It may also be informed that at the school level competition is held in two categories, “A” for students of standard 4,5,6 and category “B” for students of standards 7,8,9 from all over the state. The two best paintings from each school were invited for another round of selections conducted by a panel of jury for qualifying for the state level competitions held at Gangtok today.
This year, a total of 241 schools have participated in the competition which is a significant rise as compared to last year’s participation of only 102 schools. The number of students has also gone up from 6180 in 2012 to 16335 students this year.
The theme for the state level competition for Category “A” was ‘Energy is Life; Saving energy is nice as it pays you price’ and ‘Urja Bachao- Bhavishya bachao while Category’.  Those in category “B” had to paint on the themes, ‘Practice conservation for future generation’, ‘Conserve energy-protect environment’ and ‘Change for better with energy star label’.
The winners of the state level competition will receive Rs. 10,000, Rs. 8,000 and Rs. 5,000 respectively with consolation prizes of Rs. 1,000 awarded to ten students. Further, all participating students received t-shirts, caps, mementoes and participation certificates from the organizers today.