This Slum Area Student From Odisha’s Berhampur Ranks 367th In JEE Advanced

Berhampur: When someone has fire in his belly, inconvenient conditions can never stand as an obstacle in his journey towards success.

P Manoj Kumar (18), a resident of Prem Nagar slum in Berhampur town, has proved it again by securing 367th rank in the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) as an Economically Weaker Section (EWS) student this year.

Manoj Kumar has secured 3,899th rank under the general category in the JEE (Advanced) result published on October 15.

A private institute here provided him coaching free of cost for the last two years along with an assurance of the much-needed financial help for his admission to an IIT.

Manoj’s father Nagaraju is an electrician by profession. “I am an electrician and earn on a daily basis by attending to calls from various residences for my services. Despite severe financial constraints, I always gave priority to my son’s education,” Nagaraju was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The electrician said that he was worried after his son’s Class X exams and had approached an institute’s director Sudhir Rout to request him to provide free coaching to his son.

“He (Rout) not only agreed to provide free coaching to Manoj but also assured to arrange funds for him for admission after securing a good rank,” he said.

His mother had bought Manoj an android phone on a monthly instalment scheme so that he can attend online classes when the coaching centre was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The dues of the phone are yet to be cleared,” Nagaraju said.

Berhampur MLA, Bikram Kumar Panda felicitated Manoj Kumar on Saturday.

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