Bihar CM Nitish Kumar announces scholarship for toppers

PATNA: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday announced ‘Desh Ratna Dr Rajendra Prasad Medha Chatravriti’ at ‘Medha Diwas’ function to felicitate the toppers of Bihar School Examination Board. The scholarship for the meritorious students can be availed from 2017 itself. However, the CM did not share the details of the scholarship scheme.
Speaking at the function, which also marked the 133rd birth anniversary of first President Dr Rajendra Prasad here, Nitish said he would urge the central government to celebrate countrywide this day as ‘Medha Diwas’.The state has been organizing it since 2010.
“Dr Rajendra Prasad was not only a great leader or lawyer, but also a meritorious student. Once, a teacher wrote in his examination paper that ‘Examinee is better than examiner’. His contribution to India’s struggle for freedom can’t be forgotten,” Nitish said.
He said the state government has done a lot to provide equal opportunities to girls. Enrolment of girls in Class IX is almost at par with the boys. “When the bicycle scheme was launched in 2006, only 1.7 lakh girls were enrolled in Class IX at government schools in the state. The figure is 9 lakh today, almost to the boys,” he said.
However, he admitted that Bihar still lags behind in education system and there is ample scope for improvement. “The state government earmarks substantial amount of budget on education, but it’s still insufficient,” he said.
The CM also felicitated the 44 meritorious students with cash prize along with laptop and kindle e-reader. Prem Kumar of Govind Singh Ucch Vidyalaya (Lakhisarai), Bhavya Kumari and Harshita Kumari (Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya Jamui) were the first, second and third topper of Class X board examination 2017 and received Rs1 lakh, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 respectively with other gadgets. Fourth to tenth rank holders of Class X received Rs10,000 along with gadgets. They included Anil Kumar Rai of KL Ucch Vidyalaya (Kishanganj), Shubham Pandey of SKR Ucch Vidyalaya (Rohtas), Satyajeet Kumar of RPS Ucch Vidyalaya (Muzaffarpur), Siddharth Rai of DDMSS Vidyalaya (Madhepura), Bhaskar Anand of Utkramit Madhamik Vidyalaya (Purnia), Preeti Kumari of Project Girl’s High School (Araria), Rahul Kumar of SS High School (Jamui), Jyotish Kumar of GSD High School (Samastipur), Pallavi Kumari of NK High School (Bhagalpur) and Deeplok Prakash, Shivam Kumar, Manav Gopal, Pragya Anand, Kantesh Kumar, Irshad Alam, Mohammad Zaheer, Pallavi Bharti, Shubham Kumar and Parul from Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya (SAV).
Class XII toppers in arts — Neha Kumari of LNGRS Girl’s High School (Madhubani), Jagriti Sharma of MRJDI College (Begusarai) and Rishav Kumar of LS College (Muzzafarpur) received Rs1 lakh, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 respectively. In science stream, the first topper was Khushboo Kumari of SAV, followed by Ram Naresh Singh of RKMGG College (Samastipur) and Kunal Kumar SS College (Begusarai) whereas Priyanshu Nandan of RK Dwarika College (Patna) was the third topper.
Commerce stream topper Priyanshu Jaiswal of College of Commerce, Arts and Science (Patna), joint second topper Pallavi Sinha and Soni Kumari of Gaya College and third topper Yamini of Government Women’s College Gulzarbagh were awarded with cash prize and gadgets.
CM also gifted fourth and fifth rank holders of each stream of Class XII with Rs15,000 each and other prizes. They included Sachin Saurav of Jyoti Kunwar College (Patna), Karuna Kumari Kaushik of Ashok High School (Aurangabad), Kaynaat Nabi of HG High School (Digha), Juhi Gupta of Gaya College, Shaista Naaz of Dr Zakir Hussain Senior Secondary School (Gaya), Khushabu Kumari of Adarsh Inter College (Vaishali), Nikita Kumari of Project Girl’s High School (Katihar), Laxmi Kumari of SAV, Pravin Kumar of LBT College (Buxar) and Nitish Kumar and Satyam Kumar of MRJDI College, Begusarai.
DMs of Aurangabad, Katihar, Kaimur, Gopalganj, Jamui, Nalanda, Patna, West Champaran, Begusarai and Madhepura were also felicitated for conducting free and fair examinations.
Chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, BSEB chairman Anand Kishor, state education minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma, principal secretary R K Mahajan, secretary RL Chongthu and other dignitaries were also present on this occasion.