West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has alleged that the Centre has not released the third instalment of the Sarva Shiksha Mission (SSM) for the State.
Mr. Basu claimed in a social media post on March 29 that the Centre is yet to send the amount as West Bengal has not signed MoU with the Centre on PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri School for Rising India) scheme.
“Ministry of Finance and Internal Finance Division of Ministry of Education has cleared the release of the third instalment for West Bengal for the SSM. Still, the fund has not been released to our State. The unstated reason is that we have not signed the MoU with GoI on PM SHRI. It is completely unethical and illegal to link the release of funds of one scheme with a separate scheme,” the senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader said in a post on X.
“Mr. Basu also wondered why should a scheme be named PM SHRI when the State is bearing 40% of the share. This is nothing but petty politics,” he alleged.
Mr. Basu told reporters on March 30, “I haven’t seen such a vindictive Central government earlier. After officially releasing the money which is our due, they are blocking the flow. Are they not hurting the interest of the student community?”
The SSM is an integrated scheme for school education from pre-school to Class XII levels. The scheme is in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG-4).