New Delhi: The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has had to put on hold an ambitious plan it had drafted to improve the quality of education in Jammu and Kashmir, after realising it doesn’t have the required funds.
After Article 370 was scrapped in Jammu and Kashmir, the HRD ministry had drawn up a major plan for Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as the Narendra Modi government looked at improving education infrastructure in the region and augment the facilities currently available to students. The plan required an estimated Rs 2,600-crore fund.
However, according to a senior government official, the ministry doesn’t have adequate funds with it to take up such a project at this point. “We had drawn up the plan and were estimating the available resource envelope for this project. However, we don’t have such funds available currently for such a major initiative,” said a senior HRD official.
The HRD ministry was initially looking at funding the plan through its Rashtriya Uchchattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme, but those funds are also proving to be insufficient, according to another official.
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HRD ministry planned new colleges, better infrastructure
Soon after scrapping Articles 370 and 35A from Jammu and Kashmir, the Modi government had sent respective ministries to J&K to assess the ground situation and draw up a plan. The HRD ministry too carried out the exercise before coming up with its plan.
As part of the plan, accessed by ThePrint, the ministry was looking at opening new colleges and improving the current infrastructure by providing more funds to the existing educational institutions.
Some of the projects, which are now stuck for want of funds, include Jammu and Kashmir employment enhancement training scheme for around 5,000 students. The ministry had also planned a vocational scheme and a mentoring scheme for around 25,000 students. Apart from this, the ministry had drawn up a plan to improve the quality of all technical institutes, including polytechnics, aiming to make students job-ready.
“A plan was also made to establish constituent colleges in five universities. We have now put all of them on hold until we get adequate funds,” said a senior HRD official.
According to a source, K.K. Sharma, Advisor to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor, met HRD officials recently to take stock of the situation.
“Whatever the region has been getting, they will continue to do so, but no additional funding will be done as of now,” said another official in the ministry.
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Ma delhi ma band ho gaya ho
Promises as usual blowing in the wind!!
Sad. In fact, there should have been a generous financial package to compensate residents for the losses they have suffered.