Modi govt to slash education budget by ₹3000 crore for 2019-2020

Modi government is very likely to slash the budget for school education for the year 2019-20 by around ₹3,000 crores on in view of fund crunch.

According to a news report in The Print, Sources in the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry said Finance Ministry had cited lack of funds for the reason behind this proposal.

Amount of ₹56,536.63 crore was allotted to the school education department for the year 2019-20. The cut in funds was discussed in a meeting between the senior official of the Human resource department and the finance ministry around two weeks ago.

“Finance ministry officials said they will have to reduce the budget for school education by ₹3,000 crores,” said a ministry source, reported The Print.

However, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the HRD minister, with other officials, has been trying to pursue the finance ministry to provide the entire fund to the department.

“The (HRD) ministry is pushing them (finance ministry) to release the full amount because the school education department has no other way of generating funds. The higher education department has things like HEFA (Higher Education Finance Agency) through which they can raise money, but school education (department) does not have any such means,” said another ministry source.

On being asked about fund cut, HRD Ministry’s official spokesperson told ThePrint, “it’s not true”.

The decision in the matter is most likely to be made public next week.