Addressing a rally here after being felicitated on being inducted into the Union cabinet , the Minister said around six crore out of 20 crore primary school students drop out every year in the country.

There was an urgent need to understand the reasons behind the massive drop out rate and also to find solutions to prevent it, Patil said. Referring to the demands made by the local citizens, the Minister said that Vajpayee had assured that a branch of the ITDC would be set up here.