Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy received the prestigious United Nations Public Service Award for his mass contact programme initiative from United Nations Under Secretary General Wu Hongbo.

The award was presented at a function held in Bahrain.

Chandy bagged the first place in the category ‘Preventing and Combating Corruption in the public. He received the award for the mass contact programme which he had conducted in 2011 after becoming the Chief Minister for the second time.
The highlight of this programme was that the problems of the people could be directly communicated to the Chief Minister without any intermediary.

A total of 5.5 lakh petitions were received in 2011, of which three lakh were resolved. Financial assistance worth Rs.22.68 crore was provided to the people during the programme.

Earlier in the day, Chandy held a meeting with Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister of Baharain.

During their meeting, the Prince emphasised the importance of boosting business and economic cooperation between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Kerala