For Amgoth Tukaram, the 23-year-old mountaineer from the City, it was a huge and pleasant surprise when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy presented him a cheque for ₹ 35 lakh when the former called on him at his official chambers in Amaravati on Thursday.
Mr. Tukaram, who is chasing the rare feat of scaling all the tallest mountain peaks in the world — he completed five of the seven — informed The Hindu that it all started when he was presented the Sakshi Excellence Award last week by Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan and Y.S. Bharathi, chairperson of Jagati Group of Publications which brings out the Sakshi Telugu daily.
“After presenting the award, Ms. Bharathi made a general enquiry about my achievements, background and future plans and noted down my number. And within a week I got a call from the Andhra Pradesh CMO to come to Vijayawada,” said a delighted Mr. Tukaram.
“And, to my delight, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was full of warmth when he even reeled out my list of feats. Apparently, he got all the feedback,” said the post-graduate student in Political Science.
“Honestly, there was no specific request from my side but was immensely pleased when the honourable CM sir said I would be given ₹ 35 lakh as incentive to fulfil my dream,” Mr. Tukaram said.
“This is in contrast to the way I have been struggling to get this kind of support back home despite my efforts for quite some time,” he said.
For the record, Mr. Tukaram is waiting for the pandemic to ease before scheduling to scale Mt. Vinson in Antarctica and Mt. Denali in North America to realise his long-standing dream of being ‘on top’ of all the highest mountain peaks in the world.
