Amit Malviya, Jairam Ramesh spar over NTA’s ‘failure’ to utilise funds

New Delhi, August 5

The BJP countered Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh’s remarks that while the National Testing Agency (NTA) had earned a profit of Rs 448 crore in the past six years, it did not use the money to upgrade its testing facilities.

Ramesh flagged a recent reply by Sukanta Majumdar, the Union Minister of State for Education, to the Rajya Sabha, in which it was revealed that the NTA had collected an estimated Rs 3,512.98 crore, while it spent Rs 3,064.77 crore on the conduct of examinations, therefore securing a profit of Rs 448 crore in the past six years.

“This corpus, however, had not been used to build the agency’s capabilities to conduct tests itself or to strengthen regulatory and monitoring capabilities for its vendors. The future of millions of India’s youths has ultimately become a mere revenue-raising exercise for the non-biological PM’s government,” Ramesh had said.

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya said excess income from the first year funds preparatory activities for the next. “Excess income from the first year funds preparatory activities for the next. Therefore, summing up excess amounts from each year makes no sense. A self-sustaining institution would need at least 25-30% of its operating cost, at the start of the examination year,” he said. — TNS