Thiruvananthapuram:The ruling Congress-led UDF in Kerala on Thursday said the state government would have to implement the PM SHRI scheme as the agreement had been signed by the previous CPI(M)-led LDF government.
The UDF blamed the previous LDF government for the controversy, alleging that it had put the state in the current situation by signing the agreement.
Speaking to reporters after a UDF meeting chaired by Chief Minister V D Satheesan here, UDF convener Adoor Prakash said the front had discussed the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme.
Prakash said the meeting concluded that since the previous Left government had signed the agreement, the state could not withdraw from implementing the scheme.
"As this is a government in continuation it cannot withdraw from it," he said.
Prakash further said that implementing the scheme was part of the steps being taken by the government to ensure that the funds the state is entitled to are allocated by the Centre.
"We can, however, decide in which schools it has to be implemented, what should be their curriculum and how to spend the funds allocated under the scheme," Prakash said.
He also said that it was the CPI which had vehemently opposed the scheme, despite which it was signed by the LDF government.
"If they (LDF) did not want it to be implemented, they should not have signed it in the first place," he said.
Meanwhile, state General Education Minister N Samsudheen spoke along similar lines, saying that since the PM SHRI agreement was signed by the previous administration, there was no backing away from implementing it.
He also questioned why the previous government did not withdraw from the agreement before stepping down from power.
"They only kept it in abeyance," Samsudheen, a member of Congress-ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), told reporters.
"The LDF has put the state in a crisis on the issue and therefore, the current government has no option but to implement it," the minister added.
He said that a sub-committee has been constituted to study the scheme and give recommendations regarding its implementation, and it was working on it.
He said that the members of the committee will have distinct opinions, but there are no arguments amongst them on the issue.
The minister said that after the agreement was signed, the Centre gave around ₹90-99 crore for the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK) scheme and nothing else.
"The state has to receive around ₹1,500 crore from the Centre under SSK and we have been raising it in various forum including the recent meeting of education ministers in Delhi," Samsudheen claimed.
"We also told the Centre during that meeting not to club the SSK funds with the PM SHRI scheme and that rights of children were being denied due to SSK funds being not released," he added.
He further contended that the Centre had blocked SSK funds for three years over non-signing of the PM SHRI which was a wrong kind of "bargaining" by the Union government.
The PM SHRI scheme was introduced by the Union Government to upgrade selected government schools into model institutions.
The previous LDF government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre to implement the scheme but later kept its implementation in abeyance following protests from the UDF and sections within the LDF, including the CPI.