SILCHAR, May 29 � At a time when Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is blaming the Centre saying that Assam has got nothing to cheer from the Union Budget and has made it clear that the salaries of a section of the teachers might be uncertain, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubeen Irani today said that the Centre has lavishly sanctioned money for the State.
Irani who was on a whirlwind visit to Silchar to encourage and congratulate the party cadres on the completion of one year of the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government said that apart from the 14th Finance Commission where there has been an increase of 41.6 per cent, Assam has been given Rs 977.82 crore under the Sarva Shisksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2014-15 and already Rs 291 crore has been released and under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), Rs 159.81 crore was given this year. Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Irani said �the Budget amounts are statement of facts and the question that needs to be asked to the State Government is that has the money been transferred to the Education Department.� Elaborating further, the HRD Minister said that within the guidelines of SSA and RMSA, the State Government sits with the Centre in project approval boards and decide for which projects how much money is needed and acceptable and after they reach at a decision in conjunction with the Central Government only then funds are released. �It has to be absolutely clear that the Centre gives money to the States within the guidelines of the schemes and not in isolation,� the HRD Minister was quoted as saying.
On the question of creating employable youths, she said that already 9.5 crore students interacted with the Prime Minister through �talkathon�. Meanwhile, the HRD Minister has categorically said that she has not received any resignation letter from the vice chancellor of Assam University yet. Asked on what is the government doing for the safety and security of the students from North-east studying at New Delhi and elsewhere in the country, Irani said that her department convened a special meeting of the central universities of the country and they have been told that the challenges of the students of North-east will be addressed as per administrative provisions of the universities. Irani added that the government has introduced two schemes for the students from North-east, namely Ishan Uday and Ishan Vikas. Moreover, 10,000 scholarships in undergraduate courses have also been introduced for the students from North-east, she informed.
Reacting to the step taken by the IIT Madras to derecognise a student body for criticising the Modi Government, Irani said that IIT Madras is an autonomous institution which takes its own decision and in this case the student body has not followed certain procedures which should have been followed. �I know that the Congress is very interested in finding some flaw in the HRD. But it must understand that autonomous educational institutes have the right to administer their institutes as per their own laws,� Irani mentioned.
