Patna's much-talkedabout `Super 30' project was on Saturday consigned to history with the good Samaritans, who used to coach 30 economically backward and socially depressed IIT-aspirants to crack JEE every year, announcing their decision to abandon the noble initiative.
The sudden development came amid claims of other coaching institutes to have coached some of the successful Super 30's aspirants, thus disputing the claim of the Super 30 project. ``We are hurt by the controversy... We have decided to shelve the project forever,'' an audibly upset Abhayanand, a senior Bihar IPS officer, told TOI over phone. The `Super 30' concept was floated by Abhayanand and Anand Kumar, five years ago. Thirty IIT aspirants were selected every year on the basis of a written test and kept in a modest house for rigorous coaching. Their lodging and study materials were sponsored by a mathematics institute run by Anand.
Eighteen of the first batch made it to IITs. The number of Super 30's successful candidates kept rising every year. Most of the `Super 30' stars happened to belong to the lower economic strata. When the JEE results were announced on May 30, Anand and Abhayanand came out with a list of 28 of their 30 candidates who had made it. The same day, however, two other coaching institutes issued their lists of successful candidates. Names of at least three candidates figured in the lists.
