Free edu for girls finds no mention in FM speech
BUDGET EMPHASISES MAINLY ON CREATING, UPGRADING BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE IN GOVT EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES
CHANDIGARH :Even as chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on the budget eve announced free education for girls from nursery to the doctorate level in government institutes of Punjab, the populist measure found no mention in finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s speech on Tuesday.
Amarinder, while speaking on the conclusion of the governor’s address in the Vidhan Sabha on Monday evening, made several announcements that the legislators were expecting to hear on the budget day. Leaving aside the figures, which Amarinder said Manpreet would be divulging later, the speech gave a fair idea about the government’s plan for the year.
However, even as the budget presented on Tuesday revealed allocations to various other announcements made by Amarinder, including free textbooks to schoolstudents, it made no mention to free education for girls. ₹36 crore to ensure furniture, green boards and computers in every primary school, ₹15 crore for setting up new colleges in backward areas, ₹10 crore to revive old colleges in the state — the budget mainly emphasised on creating and upgrading basic infrastructure in government educational institutes.
HIGHER EDUCATION
The government has decided to set up five new degree colleges in educationally backward areas with a provision of spending ₹15 crore in the budget.
The budget also allocates ₹10 crore to the oldest government in Punjab, including those in Kapurthala, Malerkotla, Hoshiapuar, Amritsar and Patiala. The aim is to create infrastructure in these institutes and revive their old glory.
Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal also announced provision of free internet in all 48 government colleges. The government has also increased the grant to Panjab University, Chandigarh, from the existing ₹26 crore to ₹33 crore for 2017-18.
PRIMARY EDUCATION Apart from hinting at the announcement of a new educacolleges tion policy soon, the government has allocated ₹21 crore to ensure every government primary school in the state has furniture.
₹10 crore have been earmarked to provide at least one computer in primary schools, while ₹5.25 crore will be spent on installing green boards.
The government also announced a new scheme to encourage competition among schools.
Manpreet Badal said school adjudged best in middle, higher and secondary categories will get special financial assistance.
An outlay of ₹9.27 crore
The Captain government will set up a Central Institute of Promotion and Development of Punjabi Language at Talwandi Sabo.
The institute will undertake activities like digitisation and standardisation of the language besides research and translation of significant Punjabi works.
An Urdu academy will also come up at Malerkotla. ₹3 crore have been allocated for it.
The government has also proposed an e-library at the Central State Library in Patiala. With ₹5 crore earmarked for it, it will be connected with all major libraries across the globe. Access to this library will be for free. Saying that the budget was a modest bid by the Capt Amarinder Singh-led government to rouse the people of Punjab, he cited the example of ancient Greece where Socrates had to consume hemlock to shake the Greeks out of their stupor.
Bhagat Singh, he added, courted martyrdom at a young age only because he wanted to awaken the conscience of the people.
He resorted to poetry again while hinting at the effort put into the annual exercise.
(Never have I been dependent on stars and planets; I have always seen the light of my endeavours).” ECONOMIST TALK
When dwelling on the rising inequality in society, Badal quoted Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who caught many eyeballs last year when he said India’s action against NGOs and students of Jawaharlal Nehru University had put it in the club of countries such as Egypt, Russia and Turkey. India, Stiglitz had declared, has an image problem.
Badal quoted him to emphasise that the budget is dedicated to “the 99%” who don’t have the best of education, doctors, and lifestyles.
The FM also quoted French economist Thomas Piketty, known for his work charting inequality in the world, to assert that diffusion of knowledge and skills is the main equalising force.