FM, Montek mum on HRD’s share

Two successive meetings with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia failed to yield ...

Two successive meetings with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia failed to yield a firm commitment on the exact additional amount that the HRD Ministry could expect to receive this year through the education cess being collected.

After two separate sessions with HRD Minister Arjun Singh, neither Chidambaram nor Ahluwalia were willing to go into specifics. While Chidambaram said that meeting National Common Minimum Programme’s commitments on education was priority, Ahluwalia wouldn’t even say what quantum of money the ministry would be given.

Even the ministry officials were confused and kept wondering if they were being shortchanged on the money flowing in from cess. One surmise was that the Planning Commission might reduce budgetary allocation since they were passing on so much cess money.

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Ahluwalia said they would try to accommodate whatever the ministry would demand especially in the three sectors of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, cooked mid-day meal programme and the Integrated Child Development Scheme.

But sources said though the ministry had made an additional demand of Rs 5,000 crore for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan alone, Ahluwalia was willing to give only Rs 2,000 crore. The Planning Commission did not sound eager to provide the entire extra Rs 1,800 crore being asked for for the mid-day meal scheme either.

As a result, when the minister was asked if it was clear how much money he would get, he replied in the negative.

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