Committee to look into suicide by Navodaya Vidyalaya students

The government has constituted a committee to look into reasons for as many as 37 students of Navodaya Vidyalaya committing suicide in last 10 years, the Rajya Sabha was informed Thursday.

The government was also working on appointing counsellors in each of the schools, Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said after the the issue was raised through a Zero Hour mention by Viplove Thakur (Congress).

Thakur alleged that no attempt was made to find out the reasons behind so many students committing suicide.

Replying to this, the Minister said Navodaya Vidyalaya is a highly successful mode of residential school education with 98 per cent of students passing 12th standard, which was more than the CBSE average of 82 per cent.

The suicides happened over a period of 10 years and "we have appointed a committee to look into causes," he said.

Tiruchi Siva (DMK) raised the issue of Staff Selection Commission holding examination for appointment of non-gazetted officers only in Hindi and English.

He demanded that such examination be conducted in regional languages and selection done on zonal level.

Binoy Viswam (CPI) raised the issue of 15 miners being trapped in a coal mine in Meghayala, while Manish Gupta (TMC) said the merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda will leave to job losses and hit credit to farm sector.

Gupta said 1,800-1,900 branches will be closed. "How will merger reduce NPAs," he asked.