UPA govt betrayed electorate on education promise: JP

Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday accused the United Progressive Alliance government of failing to keep its promise of allocating at least six per cent of the gross domestic produce for education.

The allocation on education stood at 2.9 per cent of GDP in 2003-04 before the UPA came to power in May 2004, Swamy told reporters in Coimbatore.

On April 1, 2006,the allocation stood at 2.8 per cent even further below the target of six per cent, despite a three per cent cess by which the government has collected Rs.15,782 crore from the tax payers, he claimed.

Only 50 per cent of this has been spent on education, while the rest has been diverted to general government expenditure, "Which is a betrayal of the tax payer as well as the youth of India," Swamy said.

Moreover, the allocation for National scholarship scheme and scholarships for talented children from rural areas, have been reduced from Rs 2.4 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 2.3 crore in the 2006-07 budget, further exposing as hollow the Congress claim of commitment to education for all deserving children.

In terms of capital expenditure for education, only 0.01 per cent of the total budgetary expenditure was allocated on the capital account, which meant 99.99 per cent went for revenue expenditure, he said.

"The UPA government's boast of raising the standard of education for all is bogus.The education policy of the UPA  is a flop and is a complete betrayal of the electorate," Swamy said.