Imphal, February 15: The 'noble' initiative of the SPF Government to provide free education to students belonging to families below the poverty line from the current academic session is facing major snags.

An official of the Department of Education (S) who preferred to remain anonymous informed The Sangai Express that a Cabinet meeting held on January 7 this year decided to provide free education to students of BPL families reading in classes I to X and to bring students reading in classes XI and XII under the scheme from the next academic session after assessing the benefits of the scheme at the end of this year.

However, the Cabinet meeting conspicuously skipped fundamental prerequisites for implementing the scheme such as its modalities, whether the scheme should be implemented as a policy, the number of BPL students etc.

With the scheme still in its raw state, the Govt is working to implement the scheme from the next academic session, clarified Education Minister L Jayantakumar while talking to The Sangai Express.

Acknowledging that efforts to implement the scheme have encountered several difficulties and lapses, the Minister disclosed that of the total beneficiary families under AAY Scheme holding BPL cards, a large number of families have been found not belonging to the BPL category.

As such, school Headmasters/Headmistress, SDOs and SDCs have been instructed to identify students belonging to genuine BPL families, he informed.

Stating that the Government is making a thorough study whether the initiative should be taken up as a policy or not, Jayantakumar said that the matter will be tabled for discussion in the upcoming Budget session scheduled to commence from February 20 .

A sum of Rs 35 crores has been already earmarked in the State budget of the current fiscal year for the proposed free education scheme, he informed.

On the other hand, according to the Planning Department, sectorial allocation of the plan amount of Rs 1660 crores for the current fiscal year has been completed.

As for the initiative of the SPF Govt to provide free education to chilldren of BPL families, there is no allocation of fund in the budget.

However, there is an allocation of Rs 2 crores for providing incentives to schools which can produce greater number of first, second and third divisioners.

At the Cabinet meeting on January 7, officials of the Education Dept were instructed to submit a report for the amount likely to be necessary for implementing the scheme within January.

The report was supposed to be produced in the meeting held at the Planning Commission for finalisation of the State Plan size on January 21 in order to include the required amount in the budget.

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