Kendrapada: For this 19-year-old from Kendrapada’s Mahakalapada block, his childhood dream of becoming a doctor seems to be slipping away despite clearing NEET (UG) with 574 marks this year and securing a seat at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack.This is because Somya Ranjan Sahoo’s landless daily-wager father is struggling to raise the money needed for admission. The resident of Sahabajpur village under Bijayanagar gram panchayat in Mahakalapada block has secured an All India Rank of 21,051 and now needs around Rs 40,000 for counselling and admission at SCB Medical College before the Aug 31 deadline, besides another sum of around Rs 2 lakh for the MBBS course. But his family says it has no means to arrange the amount.“Since childhood, I wanted to become a doctor and have worked hard towards that goal. Clearing NEET was a dream come true. I have been appealing to people in our locality to help me pursue my dream. But no one has come forward. I need govt assistance to continue my studies,” said Somya, who lives with his parents in a modest two-room thatched house on govt land.A student of Kendrapada Autonomous College, Somya completed his Plus II science in 2024 and was pursuing a degree in physics when he cracked the highly competitive medical entrance examination.His father Kailash Chandra Sahoo said the family was overjoyed with Somya’s success, but the happiness soon gave way to anxiety over arranging the admission fees.
