Citing figures of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) grant given to the Gujarat Government, Congress today alleged in the Assembly that the Centre was doing injustice to the state while releasing funds.
The state government immediately refuted the charge of injustice saying old policies of disbursal have changed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over.
During the Question Hour, senior Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar sought details of SSA grant demanded by the state government from the Centre during the last three years.
Through his written question, Parmar also sought to know how much grant was actually received against the demand placed by the state government during that period.
In his response, Minister of State for Primary Education Nanubhai Vanani informed the House that as against Rs 1,400 crore demanded in 2014-15, Centre gave Rs 784 crore.
In 2015-16, Centre approved Rs 615 crore against Gujarat's demand of Rs 1,900 crore.
Vanani further stated in his written response that as on December 2016, Centre gave Rs 777 crore against the demand of Rs 2,591 crore towards the SSA grant for the year 2016-17.
Vanani added that the structure of SSA grant disbursal has underwent a drastic change after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014.
"It is not true that the grant from the Centre has decreased. The grant for a particular scheme (SSA) may look as if it was decreased, but, the overall grant for the entire department has remained the same. This is applicable to all the state, not just Gujarat," said Vanani.
Not satisfied with the answer, Parmar told the minister that the Centre has given around Rs 2,177 crore in the last three years against the Gujarat's demand of Rs 5,974 crore for SSA, which is around 55 per cent less.
"I am not illiterate. Your written answer clearly shows that we were given less funds for SSA. There is a clear gap of Rs 3,796 crore in what we demanded and what Centre gave. Centre has done injustice to us by giving 55 per cent less SSA grant," said Parmar.
Giving his logic behind this gap, Vanani stated that the SSA grants are now given as per the 60:40 ratio between Centre and state.
"Instead of 60 per cent, we received 56 per cent grant, which is just 4 per cent less from our demand," claimed Vanani, sparking a huge uproar in the House, as senior Congress MLA Shaktisinh Gohil alleged that the minister is lying.
Amid the accusations of "injustice" to Gujarat, education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama informed the House that nothing of such sort has happened.
"PM Narendra Modi changed the old policies of grant disbursal. As a result, instead of allocating grants for different schemes, overall allocation of grant has increased, and it is given in one installment. Thus, there is absolutely no injustice from Centre" said Chudasama.
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