Bastar students to receive APJ's IGNITE award for innovative ideas

RAIPUR: Bringing laurels to Maoist hotbed Bastar, two school students from Sukma and Dantewada districts have been selected from among lakhs of participants for APJ Abdul Kalam's IGNITE awards, 2016 meant for students with technological/ innovative ideas.
District co-ordinator of Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, Shyam Chouhan told TOI, more than 4000 students sent their innovative ideas from Bastar while thousand other had sent their entries from across the state, of which a list of 28 selected students was released for the award.
From Bastar, Roshan Sori, student of Class VI at Porta cabin at remote village of Barupata in Sukma district and Indu Manikpuri of Class VII of Aastha Vidya Mandir at Geedam in Dantewada district have been selected, he added.
According to the web portal www.nif.org.in/ignite, another student from Chhattisgarh Himanshu Raterai of Class 11 from KIIT International School in Janjgir Champa has been selected for the award.
When contacted Roshan Sori, he nervously shared his unique idea he wrote to IGNITE team, "I used to read in newspapers and hear that Maoists often loot EVMs from polling booths which either led to no voting from the region at all or the people go for re-poll. I believe that at such places, the EVMs can have a software which would directly send the data to control room of election commission as soon as the voter presses the button."
His idea impressed the panelists while another girl Indu Manikpuri suggested an idea for safeguarding septic tanks of toilets made under Swachch Bharat Abhiyan in villages which often overflows due to lack of maintenance. "To avoid the overflowing of human waste, people drop potatoes in the tank that creates aerobic and in-aerobic bacteria to decompose the waste and reducing its level. But its effect remains only for one or two months and tank overflows again due to excess of waste. Hence, a pressure record scale installed on the top of outer pipe where small capillary tube is inserted, through which the pressure gas would increase and touch the peak of tube. A wire and a red bulb can be connected to capillary tube which would then raise an alarm and bulb would lighten up to alert that the tank is full," The girl suggested saying that when the capillary tube reaches the peak level, the circuit gets completed and alarm would signal that it's time to drop potatoes again.Being one of the most common problem in remote areas, this idea suited the panelists and it got selected for IGNITE award.The students would be awarded by President of India and further their ideas would be refined and be used as software on the names of children which would be sold to several companies.