In a letter to PM Arjun Singh asks the ambit of the education cess on central taxes should be increased to meet the NCMP's target, reports Chetan Chauhan.
The ambit of the education cess on central taxes should be increased to meet the National Common Minimum Programme's target of allocating six per cent of the GDP to the education sector, HRD Minister Arjun Singh said.
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In a letter he recently wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Arjun Singh made a case for an over 100 per cent increase in allocation to the education sector during the 11th Plan to meet the six per cent target for the universalisation of education. As against Rs 1 lakh crore allocated in 2004-05, the HRD Ministry wants Rs 2.27 lakh crore.
The gap in demand and allocation could be bridged by increasing the education cess on central taxes, he wrote. He wants the six per cent target to be achieved in 2009-10. But the Planning Commission, which has been asked by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to work out a fund-allocation plan, thinks it may not be possible within the time frame suggested by the minister.
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Arjun Singh has also sought a reworking of the outlay share between the Centre and the states. Currently, the Centre provides 20 per cent of the money for education while the state exchequers give the rest.
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Arjun Singh has also sought a reworking of the outlay share between the Centre and the states. Currently, the Centre provides 20 per cent of the money for education while the state exchequers give the rest.
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The minister expressed his unhappiness with the allocation of funds for secondary and higher education. He accused the 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. But Planning Commission officials ruled out additional funds for higher education. "The money will be provided as per the Moily Committee recommendations," an official said.
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.
