Supreme Court judge has ‘no objection’ to Nashik Kumbh allocation, but 0.1% of it ‘could save schools’

“Later, I read a news report stating that Rs. 11,000 crore would be spent on one corridor (road projects in Maharashtra approved by Centre). I have no objection whatsoever to the thousands of crores being spent by the government on various development works,” he said.

“However, if out of these thousands of crores of allocated funds, even just 0.1%, around Rs. 32 crore, were spent by the government, then 100 to 125 Marathi-medium schools that have closed down across the state would not have shut down,” Justice Varale added.

Justice Varale also stressed the importance of education in the regional language and said, “I completed my entire primary and secondary education up to the 10th grade in the Marathi medium, through municipal and Zilla Parishad schools, and it never held me back in any way. In fact, learning through the Marathi language gave me a broad, open-minded perspective toward others.”

Claiming that allocations for education in public budgets have reduced over the years, he added, “At the central level, the budgetary allocation for education used to range between 8-12%. Naturally, this budget should have increased given the growing student population. Instead, the funding allocated in the budget has decreased, failing to even reach 13%,” he stated.

Raising concerns over amenities at rural schools, Justice Varale also referred to the Gadchiroli residential school incident where three girls died of snakebites.

“At a residential ashram school, female students were forced to sleep on the floor due to a lack of proper facilities. Tragically, three girls died from snakebites, and another is currently undergoing treatment in the hospital,” he said.