Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh has come to the aid of class 12 state topper who was forced to sell vegetables after he could not afford to pay the exorbitant coaching fees in Kota. After a report by a leading daily highlighted the plight of a 17-year-old Dhavendra Kumar who despite scoring 98.6% in state board exams could not pursue his dream to prepare for IITs for lack of money, the state government flung into action. “The CM asked the collector to open a joint account of Dhavendra with district education officer and the money for his coaching will be transferred by evening,” Rajesh Toppo , director of public relations in the state government, told HT.
Dhavendra Kumar scored 98.6% in this years’s class 12 board exam and came first among 3.95 lakh students who appeared in the test, joined her mother in selling vegetables at local market in Balod district’s Laundi village.
After results were declared, the 17-year-old went to India’s coaching hub Kota for preparation of engineering exams. However, his dreams came shattering down after he found that he may have got highest marks but did not have enough money. He failed to rustle up the annual average fee of 1.3 lakh rupees for admission in a tutorial in Kota. He returned to his village dejected.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Kumar said Balod district administration had assured him financial help for further studies but the promise did not translate into money.
“I went to Kota but had to return,” Kumar said.
Expressing her anguish over administration, Her hearbroken mother said,” My son secured 90% in class 10 and is now topper of class 12, but no one is helping us. We have only two acres of land and we cannot afford fees for his coaching where he wants to study,” Kumar secured 493 marks out of a total of 500 in the board examination. He got 99 each in both chemistry and mathematics. The lowest he got was 93 in English. Kumar’s father is a marginal farmer with meager income that had forced his elder brother Mohnish to discontinue studies after tenth standard some years ago.
