Marking one year of a stable Government at Jharkhand on July 13, Chief Minister (CM) Hemant Soren announced on Sunday that the toppers in matriculation and intermediate examinations would be honoured with cash awards. “Rs 3 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh will be given to the top three students of matric and three streams of inter examinations including science, arts and commerce,” Soren declared.
Sources in the CMO said that Hmenat Soren wanted to present the reward on July 13 itself and the concerned departments have been instructed to complete the related formalities by July 12. This apart, the Government is also mulling to provide a direct admission quota for State intermediate science toppers in its medical, engineering and polytechnic colleges. Officials of CMO are in touch with Government of India’s Science and Technology Department for this purpose.
Soren along with Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Geetashree Oraon, Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) Mesra Vice-Chancellor Manoj Kumar Mishra and Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) Chairman Anand Bhushan was at Prabhat Khabar’s Pratibha Samman Ceremony at Aryabhatta Hall. Around 35,000 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and JAC school and college toppers of Ranchi were felicitated.
On the occasion Nancy Sahay, Varun Ranjan and Shashank Shubhankar who bagged 36th, 38th and 60th rank in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services (Main) Examination 2013 were honoured as well.
Citing the request of Debopriya Shukla, student of Pakur Raj +2 High School who became the state inter science topper this year scoring 89.4 per cent, Geetashree Oraon said, “She wanted to take admission in BIT Mesra under state topper quota.Technically, no such provision is available. I will soon suggest a proposal in Cabinet for beginning such provision.” With the excellent state board scores, Shukla has got admission at BITS Pilani.
Meanwhile, JAC Intermediate Arts ninth topper Julia Minz, a manual labourer and student from SS +2 High School, Bero was also honoured by the CM. Minz has taken admission at St Xavier’s College Geography Honours Under-Graduation after a private coaching centre took the financial-initiative of fulfilling her dreams of pursuing higher education.
“Though I have got the college admission but I need the money to bear my personal expenses. I lost my father at the age of two years. My ailing mother is a labourer. To manage the family expenditure, I used to assist her in the profession during school holidays. Unfortunately, assistance from government is awaited despite being among the top 10 state Arts topper,” Minz said.
Mother of CBSE Class 12th Arts State cum Ranchi Topper Nishi Ankita Kujur who has taken admission at National law School of India University, Bangalore last week met Oraon on the sidelines of the function. The girl has reportedly to face some kind of discrimination due to belonging to the ‘Maoist affected state’. Oraon later tried to calm the girl through a telephonic conversation. “If required I will talk to the NlU Bangalore administration so that she can stay away from such social behaivour,” the HRD minister said. Rural Development Minister KN Tripathi, Chotanagpur Divisional Commissioner KK Khandelwal and Senior Superintendent of Police Prabhat Kumar were also present in programme.