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Dearth of funds for Education Department, says Minister

PUDUCHERRY: Education Minister M.O.H.F. Shahjahan on Thursday said the Ministers would soon apprise the Lieutenant Governor of paucity of funds in departments.

Talking to reporters on the shortage of funds for the Education Department, he said the Perunthalaivar Kamaraj Financial Assistance Scheme for students admitted to professional courses through the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC) was facing shortage of funds.

Last year, the government had allotted Rs. 15 crore for the scheme. But the department required at least Rs. 28 crore to disburse funds to the existing students.

The current fund requirement to disburse the pending amount was Rs. 7.45 crore for second year students, Rs. 5.61 crore for third year students and Rs. 4.31 crore for fourth year students, the Minister said.In engineering stream, there were 1,246 students in private colleges and 630 students in government colleges covered under the scheme.

“We have already requested the Chief Minister for additional funds and will soon send a note to him in this regard,” he said.

Over a period of time, the annual fund requirement for the scheme would reach Rs. 50 crore.

“With admission of new students this year, we need a minimum of Rs. 38 to Rs. 40 crore to implement the scheme. We want to ask for extra funds before admitting students. If additional allocation is not possible, we have to look at alternate means,” he pointed out.

In the budget for 2008-2009, the government had allocated Rs. 37.19 crore for Higher Education department, as against Rs. 42.95 crore last year. However, the total funds required for the department, inclusive of infrastructure development and salary, was Rs. 113 crore, the Minister said.

The Minister said the fund allocation for Education Department should be more as it was a priority area. The fund set apart for education in the Union Territory was around 15 per cent of the budget, while the national average was 20 per cent, he added.

It was dearth of funds which occupied the seven hours of discussions during the Cabinet meeting, he recalled. “Proper planning has to be done to avoid such fund constraints. With the present allocation, the department has to provide infrastructure to all colleges, appoint teachers, provide buildings and take care of other expenditure,” he said.

Mr. Shahjahan said he, along with other Ministers, would meet the Lt. Governor, who was also the chairman of the Planning Board, regarding inadequacy of funds. The party high command was informed of the situation, he added.

The Directorate of School Education was unable to appoint teachers owing to financial crunch. Under the bread and milk scheme, it had a due amount of Rs. seven crore to Pondicherry Agro Service and Industries Corporation Limited, he said.

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