Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Rural students strike it rich

–Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Moving ahead: Students from Ranga Reddy district who were felicitated by the Collector Dana Kishore on Wednesday.

Hyderabad: It was a dream come true for them. Hailing from families which struggle to make the ends meet, they couldn’t imagine that they had secured admission to the IIT programme of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies. As many as 169 boys and girls of Ranga Reddy district who scored more than 500 marks in the 2008 SSC examination have made it to the six year integrated IIT programme.

At a felicitation function organised by the district authorities here on Wednesday, many students broke down recounting the hardships faced by their parents in educating them. “My father pulls a rickshaw and my mother does ironing for a living. But they have not spared any effort to educate me,” said a girl who secured 522 marks in SSC. Another girl, Laxmi, couldn’t hold back her tears as she recalled the encouragement given by her parents and teachers.

Ranga Reddy Collector, Dana Kishore, was moved by the hardship of the youngsters. “You have guts to come here and speak. Don’t worry you will come up in life,” he remarked.

Mr. Kishore interacted with students and parents and quizzed the youth about their plans. “I want to become an engineer and I will get a state rank in IIT,” said Jhansi of Neredmet. Congratulating the students, Mr. Kishore asked them to strive to bring change in the rural India through technology.

The selected students will be admitted to the three residential campuses of the Rajiv Gandhi University at Basra (Adilabad), Idupulapaya (Kadapa) and Nuzvedu (Krishna).

M.R.K. Vinayak, DEO Ranga Reddy, said the students will get dual degrees upon completion of the six year course. There would be campus placement and cent percent job guarantee for all, he said.

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