Panneerselvam Demanded Rs. 100 crore for RTE Act Implementation

Nearly Rs. 100 crore has been sought by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. O. Pannerselvam from the Centre, in order to implement Right to Education Act (RTE) in Tamil Nadu. He, in a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the centre has to reimburse for the admission of the students from weaker and disadvantaged sections of the society in the private schools and they need to spend around Rs. 97.04 crore to do the same.

According to the RTE Act there has to be a reservation of 25 percent seats of such students in any private school. In order to implement the act the Chief Minister has firmly demanded reimbursement from the centre. Under the RTE Act, there has been almost 1,36,593 students who got admitted in Tamil Nadu in various private schools since 2013, admitted by the Chief Minister. The government has further notified that the private schools has made their claims of Rs. 25.13 crore and Rs. 71.91 crore respectively for the session 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Another 86,729 students have been admitted under RTE in the academic year 2014-15, due to the persuasion of the State government. The MHRD had made its stand clear by circulating it to all the state governments that the reimbursement would be effective only from April 1, 2014. Along with this the department has also mentioned that this would be only applicable for Classes I to VIII and would offer a maximum ceiling of 20 percent of the total annual plan and budget that has been approved by the Centre for each of the states.

Important Points

• To implement Right to Education Act (RTE) in Tamil Nadu Nearly Rs. 100 crore is needed by CM of Tamil Nadu, Mr. O. Pannerselvam
• To implement the act of reservation CM has firmly demanded reimbursement from the centre
• The MHRD had made its stand clear by circulating it to all the state governments that the reimbursement would be effective only from April 1, 2014