Mumbai : The Maharashtra government will come up with a policy under which tribal students from 1100 ashram schools in state would be encouraged to explore their talent and skills in their field of choice, Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savra said today.
“A policy decision to promote skills of tribal students in tribal art, adventure sports etc will be taken. A talent search will also be conducted,” the minister said. He said tribal students from three Ashram (residential) schools who participated in “Mission Shaurya” expedition to scale Mount Everest earlier this month would be given a cash incentive of Rs 25 lakh each.
“Those students who could not achieve the feat will be given Rs 10 lakh each,” he said. A total of five tribal students from Chandrapur district had scaled the world’s tallest mountain peak.
He said tribal students would be encouraged to take up professional education in a field of their choice and the expenses will be funded by the state government.
The five tribal students who scaled the peak are: Umakant Madavi, Parmesh Ale, Manisha Dhurve, Kavidas Kathmode and Vikas Soyam – all from Chandrapur district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday congratulated the five tribal students on their feat, in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio address. The five were the among the 10 students of Ashramshalas (state-run residential schools for tribals) from Chandrapur district, selected for the Everest expedition as part of the tribal development department’s ‘Mission Shaurya 2018’.
The team, with members aged between 18 and 21 years, had left on April 11 from Mumbai for the 60-day expedition.
Meanwhile, Indu Kanake (18), a member of the Mission Shaurya today recalled how the “mountain peak seemed so far when they approached closer”.
Vikas Soyam (20) recalled the struggle for maintaining balance due to high speed of wind while scaling down. Madavi and Kathmode who were among thefirst to reach the highest peak said that climbing down was a scary experience.
Dhurve thanked the nine-month training which she said made her tough. “I was happy happy to hoist the tricolour on Mount everest,” she said.
Shekhar Babu, the leader of the expedition, said the students underwent training for mental and physical toughness in Leh and Ladakh, for rock climbing in Hyderabad and mountaineering in Darjeeling for nine months.
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