Orissa JEE (Medical) topper's ordeal ends; SBI to provide loan

Kendrapada, June 18 (UNI) Deepak, son of a tea vendor, who topped this year's Orissa Joint Entrance Examination in Medical stream, is much relaxed now.

Till recently his parents were worried about how to arrange money for his admission into the Medical College. However, they were relieved of their ordeal when the State Bank of India(SBI) Jagatsinghpur Branch agreed to provide a study loan of Rs 4 lakh to the poverty stricken family.

The SBI yesterday felicitated Deepak Das of Baradiha village under Balikuda block of Jagatsinghpur for his praise-worthy achievement of becoming topper in the medical entrance examination conducted by Orissa JEE.

The SBI has also felicitated his father Rajendra Das, who runs a small tea stall in far off Kolkata and looked after the entire family with his meagre income.

SBI Deputy General Manager M S Rao, who provided a study loan of Rs 4 lakh to Deepak, released Rs 20,000 to the JEE topper as first phase loan to take admission into the Medical College.

The poor tea vendor's son recently attracted the attention of one and all in the state and outside the state when he emerged as the topper in the Orissa JEE for Medical stream.

Ever since the news flashed, the poor boy and his parents have been flooded with congratulation letters and offers for money to take up his higher education.

A couple of Oriya-NRIs have come forward to provide financial aid to Deepak Das and contacted Jagatsinghpur District Collector Satyabrata Sahu.

Deepak has already become a role model for the poor students of his state as he had proved that hard labour paid the dividends and the poverty would never come as a hindrance in his way to reach his goal.

The JEE topper claimed that he had neither joined any tutorial classes nor did he go for private tuition to prepare for the JEE test.

Deepak has a long cherished dream of becoming a skin specialist as he has seen his father suffering from a skin disease since last one decade.

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