dna Impact: Smriti Irani steps in to help Kashmiri youth struggling to arrange fee for IIT

After dna first highlighted the plight of Zahid Ahmad Qureshi who was unable to pay his fees to study in IIT, the report created a flutter on the social media. Orphaned as a child, the Kashmir youth cracked IIT despite several odds.

On social media, many expressed interest in helping out Qureshi. Now, Union Human Resource and Development Minister Smriti Irani has stepped in. She conveyed on Twitter that her family will pay Qureshi's registration fee and that scholarship will be arranged to cover his tuition fees at IIT.

@atishsihi @suhelseth spoke to Zahid. My family will pay for his counselling n MHRD will arrange scholarship to facilitate his entire edctn.

— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) June 30, 2015

Qureshi was just two months old when his father was gunned down by suspected militants.His mother remarried and Zahid was left in the lap of his old grandparents. Despite extreme impoverishment, his grandparents sent him to school to study.

Twenty-one years later when he created history by cracking the prestigious IIT, luck played truant with him again. Despite getting the enviable rank of 89, Zahid was struggling to arrange his fee to secure his berth at IIT.

This is definitely heartening news and we at dna wish Zahid Ahmad Qureshi all the best in his future endeavours. 

Read more: Orphaned by militancy, Kashmir youth who cracked IIT struggles to pay fee