Like previous years, the IIT-Kharagpur zone, comprising West Bengal and other states of eastern India, failed to catch up with the rest of India when the results of the Joint Entrance Examination for admission to IITs, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU) and Indian School of Mines University (ISMU), Dhanbad, were declared on Monday.

Only 928 students from the region figured in the list of successful 10,035 candidates seeking admissions to the 15 IITs in the country, besides IT-BHU and ISMU.

According to Professor A N Samanta, Chairman of JEE IIT-Kharagpur, of the first 500 rankers in the examination 31 are from this region. Samanta, however, said the figures from this region had increased compared to last year. About 52,176 candidates appeared in the examination from the Khragapur region while 3,84,977 candidates appeared from the entire country in the examination held on April 12.

According to reports Souvik Ganguly, a student of South Point High School, has so far secured the highest rank (Rank 114) from West Bengal. Souvik, a resident of Kasba, is keen to join IIT-Kanpur or IIT-Bombay in Electronics Engineering. Souvik’s father is an engineer with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Other achievers from the state are Swarnabho Chattopadhyay (173), Subhadip Chowdhury (212) and Sourav De (425).

Till late evening reports of five students from the city who have made it to the list of top 500 students were received.

Even board toppers from the state could not make it to the top of the IIT merit list. Subhojit Ghosh, the all India ISC topper who secured 99.25 per cent in the ISC examination this year, managed to secure 667 rank in the examination.

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