BOSTON– Purna Rao, who serves as Permit Manager in the Drinking Water Program at MassDEP’s Central Regional Office in Worcester, MA, and has been past trustee of Telugu Association of Greater Boston (TAGB) was recently honored by TAGB and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.
On behalf of the TAGB Executive Committee and Board of Trustees, TAGB President Sreenivas Batchu last month recognized Mr. Rao for the “Manuel Carballo Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service.” TAGB Board of Trustee Dr. Murthy Kanneganti presented Mr. Rao with a TAGB recognition Plaque on this occasion.
Late last year, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito held a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House in Boston to honor the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) “Lead in Schools Team” as one of the State’s highest award recipient “Manuel Carballo Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service.”
In addition to the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Matthew Beaton Cabinet Secretary for Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and Martin Suuberg, Commissioner for the Department of Environmental Protection, were also present at the State House Ceremony to recognize and honor the prestigious Award recipients.
This award is given to an employee or group of employees who exemplify the highest standards of public service, including exceptional accomplishments, exemplary leadership, creativity and innovation.
Mr. Rao was one of the award recipients. He works as Permit Manager in the Drinking Water Program at MassDEP’s Central Regional Office in Worcester and has been part of the Lead in Schools Initiative Team, which received this Award.
In 2016-2017, MassDEP’s first-in-the-nation “Lead in School Drinking Water Assistance Program” assisted over 150 communities and supported water quality testing in 818 public school buildings around the Commonwealth. Through this program, MassDEP and its partners provided technical assistance and lab analysis to help public schools test for lead and copper in the drinking water at school buildings. By the end of the program, nearly 56,000 samples had been taken and analyzed from those 818 school buildings.
