The Andhra Pradesh government today announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh each to the 14 students, who scaled Mount Everest last month.
Their coach Sekhar Babu will also get Rs 10 lakh while five other students, who were also part of the expedition team, but could not scale the peak due to various reasons, will get Rs 5 lakh each.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who profusely congratulated these students hailing from downtrodden families, announced the rewards after interacting with them in his office late tonight.
"The state government spent Rs 2.75 crore on this expedition, but you displayed such courage and grit worth Rs 275 crore. The Everest bowed to you," Naidu said.
The chief minister also promised government jobs for the students in future.
It may be recalled that the Social and Tribal Welfare departments and the Youth Affairs department of the AP government chose 65 students pursuing intermediate and undergraduate education and trained them in mountaineering.
From the lot, 30 were filtered for the advanced training and of them 19 were chosen for the final expedition last month.
Of them 14 successfully scaled the world's tallest mountain peak in different batches last month. The five others could not accomplish the mission due to inhospitable conditions.
The team returned to Vijayawada today and met the Chief Minister in the Secretariat tonight.
Social Welfare Minister Nakka Anand Babu, Youth Affairs Minister Kollu Ravindra, Excise Minister K Jawahar and senior bureaucrats were present.
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