Maha to give Rs 25 lakh each to students who scaled Everest

The Maharashtra government has announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh each to the state's five tribal students who successfully scaled the world's highest peak Mount Everest earlier this month.

The other five students, who could not complete the entire trek, would be rewarded with Rs 10 lakh, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said today.

"The state government has rewarded the five students, who successfully completed the trek, with Rs 25 lakh each and they will be given a job in the police force. The five others, who attempted to scale the summit but could not complete the trek, will be given Rs 10 lakh each," Mungantiwar said.

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.

The selection process had begun in July last year with a school-level screening of 60 students, out of whom 45 were selected for the foundation training in Wardha district.

After further shortlisting, 18 students were selected for a mountaineering course at Darjeeling. Of them, 13 were sent for an advanced training in Leh before 10 students were selected for the final team.