Uttar Pradesh govt rejects Rahul Gandhi's claim of reducing education budget

Lucknow: Rejecting Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion that Uttar Pradesh should close down hospitals to save money after it reportedly cut the education budget, the state government on Sunday clarified budgetary allocation for education has been increased by 25 percent. [caption id=“attachment_3755823” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “The total budget for primary, secondary and higher education in the Uttar Pradesh budget for 2017-18 is Rs 62,185.25 crore as compared to the previous budget of 2016-17 of Rs 49,607.93 crore, which is 25.4 per cent higher,” an official spokesperson said. He said the budget for primary education is Rs 50,142 crore this time compared to Rs 38,066.06 crore last time, which is 31.7 percent more. Similarly, the budget for secondary education is 4.8 percent higher than the previous fiscal. This year Rs 9,387.44 crore has been earmarked for the department, compared to Rs 8,956.86 crore last time. For higher education, he said, the allocation this time is 2.7 percent more than the last fiscal year. For 2017-18 Rs 2,655.81 crore has been earmarked against Rs 2,585.01 crore in the last fiscal. The Yogi Adityanath government presented its first annual budget in the state Assembly on 11 July.