Education Budget Increased Over 25 Per cent, Claims UP Government

The Yogi Adityanath government on Sunday (16th July 2017) contradicted with reports and allegations of cutting down the money on education sector claiming it to have increased by over 25 per cent, compared to the last year.

Earlier, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi targeted the BJP state-government through Twitter, saying "now close down hospitals also to save money". He quoted a news report which claimed education funds had been slashed by as much as 90 per cent in the budget.

The report claimed only Rs 576 crore had been allotted for secondary education in this budget against Rs 9990 crore last year and only Rs 272 crore for higher education compared to Rs 2742 crore allotted last year. The figures quoted had a big difference with the official figures in the UP 2017-18 budget document.

The Yogi Adityanath government presented it first budget on 11th July, 2017 after which media reports had claimed a steep decline in the budget allocation for the allocation sector.

The Uttar Pradesh government dismissed allegations saying, “The total budget for primary, secondary and higher education in the UP budget for 2017-18 is Rs 62,185.25 crore as compared to the previous budget of 2016-17 of Rs 49,607.93 crore, which is 25.4 per cent higher."

The government said the budget for primary education has been allocated Rs 50,142 crore this time compared to Rs 38,066.06 crore compared to last financial year, which is 31.7 per cent more.

Also, the budget for secondary education for FY 18 has been fixed at Rs 9,387.44 crore compared to Rs 8,956.86 crore which is 4.8 per cent higher than the last year.

For higher education, he said, the allocation this time is 2.7 per cent more than the last financial year, Rs 2,655.81 crore has been earmarked against Rs 2,585.01 crore for 2017-2018.

Rajguru Tandon

BW Reporters The author is a correspondent with BW Businessworld with keen interest in HR and employee welfare.