Zahid Ahmad Qureshi is 21 years old and has cracked the prestigious IIT entrance examination, but the counselling fee of Rs 10,000 was too much for him to bear. The Kashmiri youth’s father was shot dead by militants when he was two months old and he almost gave up the idea of taking admission into IIT.
But the Indian Army has stepped in and assured all assistance to him so he can pursue further studies.
The boy will be given the required money to complete his training and we will see to it that lack of money will not be an obstacle for him to achieve his goal.
– Senior Army Officer
Qureshi is from the remote village of Glaiend Kalan in Kupwara and was among the ‘Kashmir Super-30’ who cleared the JEE-Advanced for admission to the prestigious IITs, the results of which were declared recently.
The Indian Army launched the ‘Super-30’ programme last year. The program is run by the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, in collaboration with the NGO ‘Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility and Leadership’.
“We have contacted the boy and assured all help to him to pursue his studies,” the officer said.
Under Army’s Kashmir Super-30 programme, each year 30 students belonging to economically backward background are selected and made to undergo one year coaching for IIT exams under expert faculty from Delhi.
Last year one student cleared IIT while the rest were selected for NIT and SSM College Srinagar.
This year, the results were most encouraging with 12 candidates clearing JEE-main and three clearing JEE-Advanced.
(With inputs from PTI)
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