Won’t withdraw from PM SHRI: Kerala CM

THe Kerala authorities on midweek indicated that the tell testament non withdraw from the Prime Minister Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) scheme, but would try to seek a conditional implementation of the initiative in a manner that would give the state the freedom to fix the curriculum.Addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram, chief minister VD Satheesan said that Kerala is currently a signatory to the PM-SHRI scheme because the previous Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Ministry of Education on the scheme in October last year and received funds of ₹92 crore as part of the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan (SSA).“We are forced to continue with the project. But our condition is that we will not allow the Union government to interfere in the state’s curriculum framework. We will not allow it to select the schools for the scheme. It is the right of the state government to select the number of schools. We are the competent authority to prepare the curriculum. So we will submit a letter to the Union government on these conditions,” Satheesan said.The chief minister said that a cabinet sub-committee of four ministers has been formed to study the project’s implementation and examine its legal aspects. The sub-panel has N Shamsudheen, the state general education minister, as the convenor, and higher education minister Roji M John, culture and tourism minister PC Vishnunadh and excise minister M Liju as members.A row was triggered after the CPI, the second-biggest partner in the coalition, complained that the deal was signed without discussion or approval by the cabinet. Subsequently, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government, under pressure from the CPI, announced it would inform the Union government to keep the scheme in abeyance, hinting that it was withdrawing from the proposal.The PM-SHRI scheme, under which funds are released to the states to boost infrastructure in government schools, is controversial in Kerala where both the LDF and the UDF have maintained that it is “an ideological project of the BJP-RSS to infuse majoritarian nationalism” in students. Both coalitions in the past have alleged that the BJP-led Centre is trying to indirectly implement the National Education Policy (NEP) through the scheme and withhold SSA funds from non-signatory states.On Wednesday, Satheesan said that the CPM did not send a letter to the Centre asking the latter to keep the scheme’s implementation in abeyance. “We objected to the scheme earlier because the deal was signed without informing or discussing it in the cabinet,” he said.He added that the state government would not sacrifice its rights regarding the education sector while implementing the scheme. He said Kerala is owed at least ₹1,100 crore as part of the scheme by the Union government.At the same time, the CPI(M) accused the UDF of going back on its promise that PM-SHRI would not be implemented in the state under its government.“When the previous government signed the deal on PM-SHRI, the UDF propagated the lie that the deal was part of CPM-BJP bonhomie. At the time, UDF leaders like VD Satheesan, KC Venugopal and PK Kunhalikutty said the UDF, if elected to power, will not implement the scheme. They were lying to the people. IUML leaders, who spoke of throwing the deal in the Arabian Sea, are now taking the lead to implement it,” the CPM state secretariat said.