Centre's scheme for madarsas faces financial crunch
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New Delhi: With an allocation of Rs 120 crore, the Central government's scheme for providing education in madarsas is facing a financial crunch and the funds available will be used to clear some of the pending amount of the states of the previous years.
Due to Budget constraints, this year also, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry will meet part of the expenditure approved for previous years.
The Budget allocated under the Scheme for Providing Education in Madarsas/Minorities (SPEMM) for the general states is Rs 87.88 crore for the year 2019 while total pendency up to 2016-17 is Rs 194.93 crore and the funds are not sufficient to meet the pendency for the previous years.
Therefore, it was decided in a meeting of the HRD Ministry to distribute the allocated budget in proportion of madarsas, in states which have pending pending releases up to 2016-17 including Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh.
The HRD Ministry has observed that taking into account the committed liabilities, the Budget of Rs 120 crore allocated under the scheme in the current financial year 2019-20 is less than the Budget required.
"Due to Budget constraints, this year also Department's effort will be to meet the expenditure approved for previous years, release the amount available (Rs 120 crore) for the year 2019-20 and at the RE stage seek Supplementary funds from Ministry of Finance. It is also for this reason that new proposals were not sought for the year 2019-20", the Ministry noted at a review meeting of the scheme.
The scheme has been granted extension till 2019-20 and is being evaluated by NITI Aayog. The HRD Ministry is also considering to make this scheme a component of Samagra Shiksha for a more holistic approach to all educational institutions.
Under the restructured scheme, the madarsas and minority institutions getting funds under the scheme must get GIS mapping done. The NIC has requested that the longitudes and latitudes of the madarsas /institution be made available so that the institutes can be located through GIS mapping.
The HRD Ministry has also asked all state governments to alert officers dealing with Scheme for Providing Education in Madarsas/Minorities (SPEMM) scheme in the state regarding this portal so that they are also familiar with it and provide GIS mapping of all the madarsas and institutes.
