Palakkad (Kerala) | Kerala General Education Minister N Samsudheen on Tuesday said the previous LDF government had signed the MoU with the Centre for the PM SHRI scheme and received Rs 93 crore under it, rejecting allegations that the UDF was spreading misinformation on the issue.
"There is no factual mistake in what we have said so far. The previous government signed the MoU with the Centre. That is a fact and cannot be denied. Rs 93 crore was also released by the Centre in connection with the scheme during the previous LDF government's tenure," Samsudheen told reporters here.
The minister said the UDF government's political position on the PM SHRI scheme remained unchanged and reiterated its opposition to certain conditions attached to the centrally sponsored programme.
He said the issue would be discussed in detail within the ruling coalition before any final decision is taken.
Samsudheen maintained that the present government had not entered into any new agreement with the Centre and noted that withdrawing unilaterally from an MoU signed jointly by the state and central governments was not a simple process.
"When objections were raised earlier, the scheme was not completely withdrawn. It was only kept in abeyance," he said.
The minister's remarks came in response to criticism from senior CPI(M) leader V Sivankutty, who had accused the UDF government of spreading "misinformation" regarding the PM SHRI scheme.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Sivankutty said Kerala had not implemented the scheme and had not received any funds under it. He termed as a "blatant lie" the claim that the state had received money under PM SHRI.
Meanwhile, BJP state president K Surendran alleged that the previous LDF government had signed the MoU despite publicly opposing the scheme and said the present UDF government would eventually have to implement it.
He also demanded that both the LDF and the UDF apologise to students and parents for delaying the implementation of the project.
The PM SHRI issue became contentious during the tenure of the previous LDF government after it signed an MoU with the Centre. The state later kept the scheme in abeyance following objections from coalition partner CPI, which argued that it could facilitate the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The Congress-led UDF, then in the opposition, had also criticised the LDF government's decision to sign the agreement.
Launched by the Centre in September 2022, the PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India) scheme seeks to upgrade more than 14,500 existing government schools across the country into model institutions aligned with the NEP 2020.
With the present UDF government yet to take a final call, the scheme continues to remain a politically contentious issue in Kerala.
