Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of doing little to improve the "dismal education scenario" in West Bengal, state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Saturday that Modi is making "false allegations without knowing the real truth."
The state government has taken various steps to ensure education reaches out to the children and youth in the state, belonging to the poor and Modi should have checked the facts, Chatterjee said.
The minister, who was asked by reporters to comment on the criticism of the education policy of the state government, said "Mr Modi should know that budget allocation for education has increased by three-four per cent in Trinamool regime."
To drive home his point, Chatterjee said, "13 new universities were set up during Trinamool Congress rule. The youth here are getting more opportunities in higher education than in past."
The prime minister said in Kharagpur, the Mamata Banerjee government was opposing even the New Education Policy which laid emphasis on the use of local language as the medium of instruction even in higher technical institutions.
"We want to realise the dreams of children of poor families to become doctors, to become successful in life, but Didi even opposes this policy. She has no concern for millions of poor children," Modi said.
The state government had earlier opposed the new education policy stating it was virtually an import from the western education model without accomodating the concern of Indian educationists and reflecting ground situation in the multilingual and pluralistic society.
Published 20 March 2021, 20:27 IST