Fire engineer Padma Mushahary challenges ‘first woman from Assam’ claim for Sivhangi Sonowal

A claim that Sivhangi Sonowal is the first woman from Assam to graduate from the National Fire Service College (NFSC), Nagpur, has been questioned by Padma Mushahary, a fire engineer from Assam's Chirang district, who says she completed a degree in Fire Engineering three years earlier.

The controversy surfaced after Assam Cabinet Minister Ashok Singhal and the social media platforms of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma congratulated Sivhangi Sonowal on her graduation from NFSC and described her as the first woman from Assam to achieve the feat. The claim was subsequently reported by several media outlets and widely shared on social media.

However, Padma Mushahary, a resident of Bengtol Gate village in Chirang district, said she completed her Bachelor of Technology in Fire Engineering from the Institute of Engineering and Science (IES), Indore, in 2023. She argued that describing Sonowal as the "first woman from Assam" could be misleading unless the claim was specifically limited to graduates of NFSC.

Mushahary, daughter of Taneswar Basumatary and Doli Mushahary, is currently serving as a Senior Fire Engineer with Oil India Limited (OIL) at Duliajan.