Gadag doc tops ST category in AIIMS PG test

Hubballi: When they got admission in Dharwad’s Karnataka College in 2005, the Pujar twins — Laxman and Ramanna, from Gadag — survived on jowar roti and chilli powder for two months. When they ran out of rotis, a shared ten-rupee lunch was all they had the whole day.
Struggle and hard work are paying off. Laxman Pujar, who graduated from KIMS, Hubballi, has topped the ST (Scheduled Tribe) category to bag a postgraduate seat in the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.Ramanna, who took up engineering, is gearing up to crack UPSC exam.
Dr Laxman Pujar ranks 308 in the general category. About 60,000 students took the test held on November 9.
Poverty and lack of medical facilities in his taluk motivated him to take up medicine, said Laxman of Shirol village in Mundargi taluk, Gadag district. “My father, a lineman with Hescom, had to run a family of five children. We faced severe financial crunch during school days. After completing PU, my brother Ramanna dropped medicine in favour of engineering due to funds shortage. However, I joined KIMS,” he said.
Vidyaposhaka, an NGO in Dharwad, supported the twins during their PU days with scholarship and textbooks. He thanked the NGO and recalled some undergraduate students in his village helped them in studies. “My mother would arrange Rs 10 a month for tuitions till Class IV,” he said.
Halappa and Paravva, the beaming parents, say the twins have been excelling in studies since school days. “They joined Morarji Desai Residential School after Class 5. We’re proud that their talent fetched them scholarships,” they said.
With an eye on AIIMS entrance test, Dr Laxman saved a huge part of Rs 15,000 monthly stipend that he got during MBBS internship and trained in Kochi as it was cheaper than in Bengaluru. “I used to study 14-18 hours a day,” he said.
As Laxman is set to leave for Delhi, Ramanna, in Bengaluru, is preparing for the UPSC Mains to join the administrative service.
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A clinic for the village
“I have been observing that many villagers (in Mundargi, one of the backward taluks in North Karnataka) rush to Gadag during a medical emergency. Many have succumbed to death on the way. These incidents have moved me determined to serve here; I am committed to provide advanced healthcare at lowest prices.”
Dr Laxman