CHENNAI: Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite the release of pending grants under Smagra Shiksha (SS) scheme and delink the fund release from an issue that required further deliberations, Chief Minister M K Stalin said the withholding of funds would severely impact the education of millions of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their teachers.
Pointing out that the non-release of funds agitated against the stated objective of SS, which was 'No child should be denied the opportunity for education,' Stalin in a letter to Modi on Tuesday said: ‘Lately, it has been noticed that the Union Government is attempting to link the complete implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) in PM Shri Schools as a prerequisite for sanctioning funds under the ongoing SS Scheme.’
While funds had been released to states that had entered into MoUs, the request of the State, which had significant reservations about specific provisions in the NEP 2020, to make a minimal modification to the MoU to align itself to PM Shri schools had not yet been accepted, he said.
Drawing Modi’s attention to the reports that the first instalment funds under the SS had not been released for Tamil Nadu and a few other States, Stalin said ‘The SS is the primary centrally sponsored scheme in the Country's education sector and therefore, the timely release of funds is of utmost importance.’
Every year, funds were released subject to the sanction of the Project Approval Board (PAB) and the State was allocated Rs 3,586 crore for 2024-’25, out of which the Union Government's 60 per cent share came to Rs 2,152 crore, the first instalment of which that worked out to Rs 573 crore, was overdue, he said.
Though the proposals were submitted in April 2024 itself, the Union Government had not yet released Rs 249 crore due for the previous year, too, he said.
‘In the past, I had written to the Hon'ble Union Minister of Education to ensure the release of funds to the State and only after this a portion of the pending funds were released last financial year,’ he added
Even after a delegation of Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu met the Union Minister in July and represented for the timely release of grants, nothing had been released, he said and pointed to progressive states like Tamil Nadu pioneering and implementing many path-breaking schemes and programmes in both school and higher education.
‘Due to the regional differences in socio-economic conditions, infrastructure, resources, etc., it is imperative that states have a fair say in implementing policies affecting children in matters pertaining to education which is placed in the concurrent list of the Constitution of India,' Stalin said.
The ruling BJP’s ally in the State, the PMK also criticized the BJP government for not releasing the funds and said that it was to force the state adopt the New Education Policy that included the three-language formula.
TNCC president K Selvaperunthogai also came out against the withholding of funds and said that the DMK government had protested against the NEP right from the beginning. If the funds were not released, the students wing of the Congress would organize a protest, he said.
