By IANS
New Delhi : Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday said non-allocation of funds by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram resulted in shelving of the Right to Education bill.
Sibal said when the bill was in the preparatory stage three years back, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh had assigned him to be part of a sub-committee and devise ways to move it forward.
"We had done a comprehensive calculation and had estimated that India needs Rs.80,000 crores (Rs.800 billion) more for primary education in addition to its current annual expenditure of Rs.47,000 crores (Rs.470 billion)," the science and technology minister said.
"When we approached the finance minister over the monetary sanction, he said, 'I am sorry, I cannot give you Rs.127,000 crores (Rs.1,270 billion) annually'," Sibal told a conference on 'Innovating for inclusive growth: The Indian Way' organised by industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The Right to Education bill, aimed to make primary education mandatory for all kids in the age group of 6-14, has been forwarded to the state governments as a model bill. The central government has not given any direction so far whether the states should implement it or not.
Sibal said that after the finance minister declined to allocate the funds, the sub-committee approached the state governments for a 50-50 funding but they declined.
"See, this is how injustice is done to people in general. Currently, out of every 100 students enrolled at the primary level, only eight do graduation. If this is the condition of our education, then how can we innovate?" he lamented.
Sibal said both the private sector and government sectors need to focus on primary education and improvement of healthcare facilities.
"In spite of our (United Progressive Alliance government) target of spending 6 percent of GDP on education, we have been spending only 3.9 percent. The health expenditure too is dismal at less than one percent of GDP," he said, adding that the government was striving to improve the situation.