Venkaiah Naidu lauds underprivileged Andhra students for climbing Everest

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu has congratulated a group of social welfare and youth services students for climbing the Mount Everest.

Naidu said, "They have come from normal families and have succeeded in a great way. I congratulate them for taking up this historic foot. Being students from the downtrodden society, they have made it to the top. It is a great achievement."

Shekhar Babu, the chief coach of the team, said, "This is the first time an Indian team opened a route to the summit from the north and especially in this season when it's difficult."

"They were trained at 21,000 feet. They were mentally and physically trained", he added.

The chief coach said the team had to cross over dead bodies at some points.

Youth services officer Komal Kishore said, "We only want to channelise their energies into doing good things. We want these youths to believe that if they climbed Everest, they could achieve anything in the world."

Bharath, a climber and a native of Andhra's Kurnool district said, "We got support from the government. They spent Rs 30 lakh on each person and we thank them for it."

Rani, from Andhra's West Godavari district, said she had a fear before starting for the summit, but her teachers encouraged her a lot.

The group underwent six months of training before moving towards Nepal to climb the world's tallest mountain on April 8. Nineteen youngsters started out for the summit, but only 14 completed the climb successfully.