Centre withholds Punjab’s Rs 570 cr under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, July 4

The Centre has withheld Rs 570 crore due to Punjab under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan after the state government failed to implement the PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI), a Centrally-sponsored scheme for upgrading public school infrastructure.

Funds not released yet

Rs 2,300 cr cut in borrowing limit was imposed over huge losses by power utilities

Rs 6,400 cr Rural Development Fund

Rs 1,800 cr special grant

Rs 1,000 cr under National Health Mission

Scrap free power scheme: Economists

• A research paper, presented by three Punjab economists at the India Policy Forum 2024 said Punjab needed to shed its monoculture farming, scrap subsidies like free power and water and reorient its industry and services sector to overcome the slow economic growth, high debt and societal challenges like drug menace and environmental degradation
• Over dependence on the Centre’s food procurement policy made it heavily agricultural. As a first step, the state needed to diversify its agriculture beyond wheat and paddy, said the paper presented by Lakhwinder Singh, Nirvikar Singh and Prakarsh Singh.

With this, the total funds that the Centre has not released to the state have risen to around Rs 9,770 crore. This is over and above the Rs 2,300 crore of cut imposed on the borrowing limit of the state last fiscal.

The SSA fund has been withheld because the Punjab Government had withdrawn from the PM SHRI despite signing an MoU with Union Ministry of Education for its implementation almost two years ago.

Officials in the Finance Department have told The Tribune that according to the terms of the agreement, the state government cannot withdraw from the scheme. “Since the government decided not to go ahead with the scheme, the Centre has refused to release funds. This will impact the state’s efforts in upgrading school infrastructure,” said a senior officer in the state government.

Under the scheme, the Centre releases funds on upgrading school infrastructure and all such schools must prefix “PM SHRI” with their names. This was not acceptable to the AAP government because, the official said, the government was running its own schemes to upgrade school infrastructure.

Initially, the borrowing limit of Rs 3,000 crore was reduced after the state government switched over to the Old Pension Scheme, which was later restored. But another cut of Rs 2,300 crore in the borrowing limit was imposed on the grounds that state power utilities were incurring huge losses.

The state government has not received the Rural Development Fund amounting to Rs 6,400 crore for two years now, a Special Assistance Grant of Rs 1,800 crore has been withheld and another Rs 1,000 crore, to be given under the National Health Mission, has not been released. These funds have been withheld on the charges that the state was not complying with the Centre’s direction on the use of the funds.

“The Centre is meting out a step-motherly treatment to Punjab. Politics aside, the Centre should ensure equitable distribution of funds to states. We are trying to re-establish contacts with the new functionaries in the NDA government. Hopefully, better sense will prevail and these issues will be resolved soon,” state Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said.