HRD Minister Arjun Singh has suggested that the ambit of education cess should be increased to achieve the target of six per cent Gross Domestic Product as per National Common Minimum Programme.
Singh wants that the six per cent target should be gradually achieved in 2009-10 financial year. The Planning Commission, which has been tasked by the Prime Minister’s Office to work out a fund allocation plan, believes that it may not be possible within the timeframe suggested by Singh.
In a recent letter written to PM, Singh made a strong case for increase in allocation and asked for more than 100 per cent increase in allocation for education during 11th plan to meet the six per cent GDP.
As against one lakh crore allocated in 2004-05, the HRD ministry wants Rs 2.27 lakh crores to meet the NCMP target of universalisation of education. The huge gap in demand and allocation can be bridged by higher education cess on central taxes, he said.
Singh has also sought re-working of outlay share between the Centre and the State. The Centre provides only 20 per cent, while remaining comes from the states’ exchequer.
Hinting at increasing the Central allocation, Singh suggested discussing the issue in the National Development Council. “The manner in which the additional funds should be shared needs to be worked out,” he said.
Singh has also expressed his unhappiness with funds allocation for secondary and higher education. In a note forwarded to PMO, Singh has accused Planning Commission of allocating only 45 per cent of the amount that was sought. “Even the entire money allocated in the 10th Plan was not given to us,” he complained.
Planning Commission officials, however, ruled out additional funds for higher education. “The money will be provided as per Moilly Committee recommendations,” an official said. This mean that higher education will get about Rs 18,000 crore more in the next five years.
Referring to Tapan Majumdar Committee report on meeting NCMP commitment on education, Singh said, the committee has given different models for achieving the GDP targets, which the commission can consider.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
