'Govt spending on education will double'

Smriti Zubin Irani took charge of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry on Tuesday, saying she would seek to ensure that government spending in the education sector is increased to 6 per cent of the GDP from the current 3.8 per cent.

Making it clear that she would leave no stone unturned to fulfil the promises made by the BJP in its poll manifesto for the education sector, the new HRD minister said her immediate priorities were to establish a national e-Library to empower school teachers and students as well as the setting up of a central university on Himalayan technology.

“To me, it is not a position of authority but a position of service. I want to assure that we will leave no stone unturned to fulfil the promises made by our party in its poll manifesto in next five years,” Irani told reporters.

Expressing her gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her party for giving her the HRD portfolio, the Minister said she felt honoured as the post was earlier held by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi during the previous regime of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Many bills, formulated by the United Progressive Alliance government to bring reforms in the education sector during its regime, have either lapsed or are pending passage in Parliament. Irani said these bills would be studied for possibility of their introduction afresh in Parliament.

“On behalf of the Ministry, we have undertaken a study of all the pending bills in the Parliament, all pros and cons of these legislations. I will only say, instead of making any specific statements right now, we are having ministerial meetings within our departments to see what can be done,” she said.

The HRD Ministry faced a crisis of consensus on many of its education reforms agenda during the UPA regime. Irani said her Ministry will evolve a consensus among all the stakeholders before taking any final decision on any of the issues.