Bhubaneswar, July 1: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today felicitated 52 students who had qualified the JEE for the academic session 2016.
The students, all from the Odisha Mining Corporation's (OMC) "Super 30" initiative, were given an appreciation letter each.
Two batches of 30 students each were trained under this initiative of the OMC that started in 2015. In this programme, students belonging to Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Angul, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Kalahandi, Koraput and Rayagada hailed from families with income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.
Of 60 meritorious students, who had been provided with coaching, 52 cleared the JEE (Mains) and of the 52 students, 24 cleared the JEE (Advanced) - making them eligible for admissions into the Indian Institutes of Technology.
Of the 52 students, who qualified, 13 are from the SC category, two from the ST category and 17 from the OBC category. The list also includes two girl students, said the authorities.
The programme provides a platform for the candidates from poor families across the state. It provides them with coaching and orientation to compete with other students in the country and qualify the JEE (Mains) and the JEE (Advanced).
Naveen also spoke about the state government's latest scheme, the Kalinga Siksha Sathi Yojana, in the event. The programme provides education loan at 1 per cent interest for the students of lower and middle class families so that they can pursue higher education in various disciplines.
"We are also going to establish model schools in all the 314 blocks of the state in a phased manner. As many as 100 model schools became operational this year," he said, while appreciating the mining corporation for its contribution to construction of the schools in selected economically backward blocks of the state.
"Investment in education is an investment in future. In order to create a skilled Odisha, we have built an elaborate institutional architecture in the skill development authority at state level," said Naveen.
"We were provided with 11-month free residential coaching to compete in the entrance exams and fortunate to have received such a wonderful chance," said Sukant Behera, a student.
