71 crack JEE in combat zone of Chhattisgarh's restive Kanker district

The frequent gun shots did not deter the concentration of Mahesh Usendi, a resident of Bondanar village under Antagarh development block of Kanker district in Chhattisgarh’s restive Kanker district, who finally cleared the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) despite living in deprivation and a dominion of terror.

The remote village comes under the pocket where the Left-Wing Extremists have a considerable sway. The frequent gun-shots are nothing new to the villagers, fired either by the rebels or security personnel. However, it did not falter the concentration of a few talented lads who brought laurels by passing the prestigious engineering entrance exam.
 

“Mahesh is not the only one, four others have also cleared the JEE,” Ashkumar Thakur, Principal of Bondanar government school, said with pride. The others include Krishna Markam, Jagdish Usendi, Vidhi Kawade, and Laxmikant Anchal, he said, adding that the parents of all the five students are poor and work as labourers.
 

In all, 71 students from Kanker district in Chhattisgarh passed the JEE (Advanced) 2023 in the first attempt itself. Of the qualified students, 64 are from the tribal community. The break-up includes 39 boys and 32 girls.

From a government-run Prayas residential school in Kanker, Jagruti Komre topped the district with 90.46 percentile. She comes from the tribal community. 
 

The doctor-turn-bureaucrat, Priyanka Shukla took a special initiative to identify such talents and impart them special coaching through her campaign Hamara Lakshya (our aim) that she launched soon after taking over as district collector in July last year. “During my visit to the interior areas, I found the strength and potential of students provided they were given proper coaching,” the 2009-batch IAS officer said.
 

Under the campaign, the senior officials and subject experts visited the schools and motivated the students. The students who opted science in high school were provided with the best books for JEE and NEET. The district administration hired an educational institute to impart free coaching to 340 students, of which 300 were tribals. The officials spoke to the students over mobile once in a week and enquired about their preparations.
 

Under the supervision of the district education officer, a special 10-day residential coaching camp close to the examination was conducted. The administration also arranged to pay the entrance fee of the students and also ferried them to examination centres.
 

“The efforts and motivation of the administration thrilled the students who prepared with more vigour and gave the desired results,” Priyanka Shukla said.