The Minister of State (MoS) for Education, Subhas Sarkar, said that the government does not discriminate among states when it comes to providing loans for higher education, in a written reply in lower House of the Parliament. Sarkar said that states are allocated funds based on the projects submitted to them in response to a question in the Lok Sabha. However, data presented in the Parliament shows that Delhi, along with Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, did not get any loans for improving access, equity and quality in higher education in the last five years.
The government has released a total loan amount of Rs 4,851.05 crore to 36 states and union territories (UTs) in the past five years under its two centrally sponsored schemes- Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), which provides investment for improving access, equity and quality of higher education and Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), which is formulated to improve the quality of technical education in state institutions.
The highest allocation of Rs 253.91 crore under RUSA was provided to Assam and Rs 201.79 crore to Uttar Pradesh under TEQIP. All Centrally Funded Higher Educational Institutions (CFHEIs) are required to submit projects undertaken by them and funds are allocated through loans based on these projects, Sarkar said in the written response.
Furthermore, major Northeast States such as Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim also did not get any loans to improve the quality of technical education at higher education level since 2018. Union Territories (UTs) like Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh, and Lakshadweep along with Goa were also not provided loans for higher education during the period. FE Education Online could not independently verify projects submitted by these states to the government.