In yet another bid to get the states to increase their share of funding of programmes under the Right to Education Act, HRD minister Kapil Sibal is calling a meeting of state HRD ministers this month end to get them on board on the issue.
Sibal got the Right to Education Bill passed in Parliament in the last budget session but has not been able to notify the Act because of the reluctance of states to increase their share of the finances. The Bill, hailed as a landmark legislation, envisages free and compulsory education to children in the 6 to 14 age group. The HRD minister was to meet finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and planning commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday to decide on the notification of the Act but has now postponed it for a later date.
Asserting that he was convening the meet with the states, Sibal expressed hope that he would be able to bring them on board on the sharing of finances. ?Let us see what happens. I will take the views of the states,? he said.
Financing free education once the Act is notified will not come cheap with the government looking at a huge bill of 1,71,000 crore over the next five years. The planning commission has already maintained that the Centre cannot be made to bear a major portion of the burden given the slowdown in economic growth and that states would have to hike their contribution to the education kitty. It has contended that the states have to share the burden equally.
States have not only refused to hike their contribution but have been pressing for a rearrangement of the present Centre-state ratio of 60:40, to make it at 65:35. Another option, states have contended, is to increase their allocation from the Centre.