Chandigarh: Coming from a poor Dalit
family, it was an arduous journey for 27-year-old Mamta Sodha
who fulfilled her dream of scaling the world`s highest peak Mt
Everest on Saturday.
"We are very proud of Mamta`s feat. She comes from a
poor Dalit family. Her mother is a widow and Mamta, who
teaches at a college in Kurukshetra, has to support a family
of three that also includes her brother and a sister,"
Haryana`s Financial Commissioner Dhanpat Singh said.
Singh said that Mamta, who hails from Haryana`s Kaithal
district, 111 kms from here, was a member of National
Adventure Club and had on earlier scaled other peaks.
"Finding sponsors for the expedition was an arduous
task. She got Rs three lakh from Haryana Chief Minister
Bhupinder Singh Hooda and another Rs five lakh from Congress
MP Navin Jindal. I arranged Rs two lakh for her equipment from
ONGC," he said.
He said that Deputy Commissioners of Gurgaon, Panipat
and Kaithal had also chipped in, enabling Mamta to realise her
dream of attempting to scale the world`s highest peak.
He said that Mamta had undergone intensive training at
Nehru Institute of Mountaineering at Uttarakhand.
"We will be requesting the Chief Minister to have a
function to facilitate her when she returns," he said.
PTI
