Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, on Thursday, said school students who would climb any one of the 10 highest mountain peaks will be given a cash reward of Rs Five lakh under a scheme for mountaineering.

Flagging off a mountaineering team of school students today, the CM said in the series of 75th Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, a team of 75 students and teachers from various government schools of the state in collaboration with the School Education Department and National Adventure Club, Chandigarh, will go for mountaineering to Mount Yunam, located at a height of 6111 meters in the
Lahaul region of Himachal Pradesh.

Khattar said Haryana is the first state in the country which is known as a sports hub. The players of Haryana have brought the maximum number of medals in Olympics and Paralympics. Therefore, a scheme will also be chalked out for mountaineers on the lines of sports, he said.

The CM said in reality life is not limited to education as extracurricular activities help the students to generate new ideas and also increase their knowledge.

The more one participates in such activities of mountaineering on Mount Yunam, the more one will be successful in life, said the CM. Khattar said he appreciates the courage of children with special needs who are going mountaineering and are taking part in adventure activities for the first time and will bring laurels to the country and the state by creating a world record.

The CM said 25 disabled students along with teachers are also part of this mountaineering team. He said that earlier, annual programmes were held at Mallah in Morni but now school students are being sent to other places also for mountaineering.

Khattar said that mountaineering programmes for students at school level were first started in 2016 in collaboration with Sainik School Kunjpura. Since then, five times the students of government schools of the state have successfully climbed Friendship Peak, a 5289-meter high peak located in Manali, Himachal. On the basis of participation in these adventure programmes, Haryana has the distinction of getting the first position in the national level in 2018-19.