More funds only from next year for education

Low absorptive capacity of sector cited as reason

The Centre is unlikely to allocate additional funds to the primary education department for the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and the mid-day meal scheme during the current fiscal, though it is expected to collect nearly Rs 5,000 crore through the education cess.

The funds are not expected to be allocated to the two schemes due to low absorptive capacity of the primary education sector, senior human resources development ministry officials said.

The Centre intends to step up the allocation for education from the present 4 per cent to 6 per cent over the next few years.

While HRD Minister Arjun Singh has sought an additional Rs 6,861 crore for the two schemes""Rs 5,000 crore for the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Rs 1,861 crore for the mid-day meal scheme, there was little evidence from the finance ministry or the Planning Commission to suggest increased allocation in the additional gross budgetary support being finalised.

"We reviewed the progress of the schemes. We concluded that as these programmes gather momentum, more funds will be sought and more funds will be provided," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting with Singh this afternoon.

"There is no clarity whether HRD ministry will get an allocation over and above the amount promised in the Budget," Singh said in the evening, after meeting Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia played down the issue saying that the detailed allocations would only be worked out after the meeting of the full Planning Commission next week.

In his Budget speech, Chidambaram had announced Rs 10,000 crore additional support for the high priority areas identified in the National Common Minimum Programme.

Besides the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and the mid-day meal scheme, the priority schemes include the food-for-work programme and the integrated child development scheme.

The finance ministry has assured the HRD ministry that transferring the cess collections to the Consolidated Fund of India merely a technical issue. While the government has allocated Rs 3,057 crore to the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan during the current fiscal, Rs 1,675 crore have been earmarked for the mid-day meal scheme.