Coimbatore: “The central government is promptly providing funds for Tamil Nadu in the school education sector,” said BJP National Women’s Wing President and Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan.
In a statement issued by her, she said, “Everyone knows that the funds allocated for a project can be provided only if the project is implemented. Especially Chief Minister M.K. Stalin knows it well. However, Chief Minister Stalin, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh and others are systematically spreading false propaganda that the central government is ‘blackmailing’ and threatening that funds for Tamil Nadu can be provided in the education sector only if the new education policy and the three-language policy are adopted.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi government is implementing the Integrated School Education Scheme to improve the infrastructure of government schools across the country, the skills of teachers, and the learning skills of students, and to create technological facilities for it. For this, the Modi government has provided Rs. 10,447 crore 30 lakh to Tamil Nadu from 2018-19 to 2023-24. As part of the SSA program, the central government is implementing the PMSri program, which includes a new education policy. The aim of this program is to select specific schools in each state, implement the recommendations of the new National Education Policy, provide various infrastructure and technological facilities, and turn them into model schools.
The DMK government, which agreed to implement this program and was ready to sign, refused to sign at the last minute, listening to anyone. That is why it has become impossible to provide the funds allocated to Tamil Nadu for the program. This is what the DMK, including Chief Minister Stalin, is politicizing.
In the school education sector, under the PM Poshan program, state governments are being provided with funds to provide food to school children. Out of the Rs. 443 crore approved in 2024-25, Rs. 10,000 has been spent so far. 339 crore 87 lakhs have been released. For the new Bharat Literacy Scheme called ‘Ullas’, which provides education to adults who have missed school, Rs. 13 crore 77 lakhs have been released from 2022-23 to 2024-25.
The central government continues to provide funds for the school children feeding scheme in Tamil Nadu and to pay salaries to cooks, assistants and others working in it. The reason for not releasing funds for Tamil Nadu under the PM Shri scheme is that the DMK government initially agreed and then backed out at the last minute.
The facilities available in private schools run by DMK members including Chief Minister Stalin’s family are the same as those in government schools where socially and economically oppressed children study under the PM Shri scheme. Therefore, the Tamil Nadu government should stop playing politics in the welfare of students in the education sector and come forward to implement the PM Shri scheme,” the statement said.
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