Kerala's Ruling UDF to Implement PM SHRI Scheme in State-Run Schools

Kerala’s ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Thursday decided to implement the Union Government’s Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme in state-run schools — a significant U-turn for a coalition that had once strenuously opposed it. After a UDF meeting Thursday, alliance convener and Congress MP Adoor Prakash said the coalition had decided to implement the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre’s PM SHRI in Kerala schools. “The previous LDF government had signed an MoU with the Centre. Hence, the present government cannot withdraw from it. The UDF government will take forward the project to get the fund, which is not a magnanimity of the Centre. A UDF sub-committee will finalise the schools where the project has to be implemented,” he said. This marks a significant departure from the UDF’s previous stance. While in the Opposition, it had criticised the scheme, accusing the previous LDF government of facilitating the Sangh Parivar’s “saffronisation” of school education by signing the MoU with the Centre. In particular, it marks a significant softening of stance by ally IUML, one of the scheme’s most vocal critics, which now holds the education portfolio. In the run-up to the election, the IUML had warned that the scheme would be “abandoned” if it was voted to power. The IUML has justified this volte-face by arguing that Kerala needs the central funds while safeguarding the state’s rights in the field of education. The shift comes at a time of financial constraints and rising education arrears in Kerala, which now stand at Rs 1,466 crore. The debt has prompted both the LDF and the UDF governments to climb down from their previous positions. In Kerala, 33 Kendriya Vidyalayas and 14 Navodaya Vidyalayas are part of the scheme. Under PM SHRI, states have to bear 40% of the project expenditure, as with other centrally sponsored schemes. So far, 13,095 schools, from primary to higher-secondary level, across 776 districts have become part of the scheme. Last month, the state government had indicated a softening of its stance, saying it was willing to implement the scheme provided it retained control over the state syllabus. The apparent back-pedalling has led the previous LDF coalition to target the government. “When we signed the MoU with the Centre, Congress had alleged we were implementing the Sangh agenda. The government under the LDF had not taken a single paisa under the scheme,” CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan had said then in words that appeared to echo the UDF’s previous allegations. “Congress has completely surrendered before BJP. Satheesan is lying, the LDF government had not completed any formality for implementing the PM SHRI.”