Rajya Sabha on Wednesday paid rich tributes to the brave security personnel who made supreme sacrifice to defend the temple of democracy 22 years ago in 2001, after terrorists attacked the Parliament complex.

As soon as the House assembled to begin the proceedings of the day, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar led the House in paying homage to the martyrs.

“Their sacrifice will be remembered as we reiterate our commitment to wipe out terrorism,” said Dhankhar.

Meanwhile, during the question hour, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva raised concerns about suicides among students due to competitive exams.

Replying to the questions asked by the MPs, Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan said the government has taken several steps about it and has issued advisory time and again. Fit India program is a part of it and Khelo India is a movement of it. The Central and state governments are serious on this issue and taken several steps.

Responding to the question about forced selling of uniforms by private schools and policies regarding it, Pradhan said under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan with the collaboration of respective state governments, uniforms are distributed free of cost to government sponsored students up to class 8. It is up to the state government how to procure uniforms for their respective government schools.

“In the private schools, it is the responsibility of the state government and private school management regarding uniforms. On the part of the Central government, it is not possible to monitor at micro level which school or agency will provide the uniform,” said the Minister.

(With UNI inputs)