The Uttar Pradesh government recently presented its first budget. The very next day, various newspapers reported that the UP government has slashed funds for education in the 2017-18 budget quoting a PTI copy.Soon after, the Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi also tweeted the story.The Aam Aadmi Party posted a picture on its Facebook page. The AAP also seems to have taken the numbers from the PTI story.
However, the UP government’s Budget documents tell a different story. Below are the links to the official budget documents
- Primary Education: 2016-17 2017-18
- Secondary Education: 2016-17 2017-18
- Higher Education: 2016-17 2017-18
There is a primary difference between the nature of budgets for the year 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the way the allocations are made.
The central government and most state governments have done away with the Plan/Non-Plan mode of budgeting to Revenue/Capital budgeting. Even UP has done the same. Despite this change, the allocations have increased and not decreased.