Assam has become the first state to successfully conduct five thousand cleft lip and palette deformity surgeries. It is an initiative of National Rural Health Mission in association with Operation Smile India and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. To mark the success, a commemoration programme was organized at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital in Guwahati today.Addressing the gathering, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi expressed happiness on the success achieved by the health department. He stressed the need to provide better health care particularly to the poor section of the society.Gogoi also underlined the need to set up a separate hospital for women in Assam.Assam health minister Dr.Himanta Biswa Sarma said that Assam has 15000 patients having cleft lip and palette deformities. The health department has set the target of another 10 thousand surgeries in next 2 years. He further added that state health department has become one the model state in proper implementation of various health schemes.It may be recalled that Operation Smile conducted these surgeries in the last 3 years. More than 10 thousand volunteers from 24 countries provided free treatment under this initiative. Assam government has already set up a permanent cleft care centre at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital. Union Health & Family Welfare minister Gulam Nabi Azad, in his recent visit to Assam, remarked that Operation Smile’s work in the state is a model for other state.