State Government spends on education, but rights are with Union Government

Chennai: Chief Minister M.K. Stalin with a powerful statement. Stalin's demand in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to shift education to the state list has become a subject of discussion.

Speaking at the 36th convocation of the Gandhigram Rural Deemed To be University in Dindigul, Stalin said, "There are 22 universities under the control of the Government of Tamil Nadu which are functioning effectively. Tamil Nadu is one of the best performing States in higher education in India. The Government of Tamil Nadu is taking various steps to further strengthen this," he said.

Another quality counter of Stalin!

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"Education is the only asset that no one can destroy under any circumstances. It is the duty of the state government to provide it. The Government of India should understand this and support the state to function on its own. Stalin explained this and demanded to shift education to the state list.

Whenever Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes to Tamil Nadu, it is the practice of Chief Minister Stalin to put forward the rights required by the state. DMK has always stood for the rights of state.

Earlier in May, Modi came to inaugurate projects worth Rs 31,500 crore at the Nehru Indoor Stadium.

On the stage Stalin said "The 'Dravidian model' is a combination of social justice and women's empowerment," and requested the government to immediately release the GST dues to Tamil Nadu for the welfare of the state.

The chief minister's speech became a topic of discussion at national level. Every time Prime Minister comes to Tamil Nadu, Stalin takes the opportunity to explain about the rights of the state.

Even today, he has asked directly to 'transfer education to the state list'.

Decoding Stalin's Agenda!

There are still more confusions regarding the state rights and the union government rights over state. We need to understand "To what extent is the state government's right in education? "What is the hidden meaning behind Stalin's slogan?" requires a detailed explanation.

"We have to understand this from three platforms.

The Constitution recognized the existence of different linguistic communities in India. India was built as a composite union consisting of various linguistic states. when describing India so clearly, they referred to it as 'India that is Bharat shall be a union of states' which is in the very first clause itself.

After 1956, 'linguistic states' were divided which reflects Indian culture. We need to specifically understand that India is a composite union of linguistic states," says Prince Gajendra Babu, General secretary of the State Platform for Public Schools.

He then listed out the various information, "As per the Constitution, the list of power sharing was discussed. State and central should function only as per that' The immediate and unique needs of the state and people were added to the state lists,

Whereas the functionalities that should be implemented throughout India were added to the Union government's list such as land, sea, air, security, border security, transport and foreign policy.

What is the State List?

There are 3 types of Lists that we need to understand. List one speaks about the power of the Union Government; List 2 speaks about the power of States and there is list 3 which works with the harmony of both the parties. That is called the concurrent list.

In that sense, whatever was urgently needed, including education and health, was in the state list. This has been the case from the beginning. Only one job of determining the quality of higher education was on the union government's list.

We must understand that the power to control the university has not been given to the Union Government. Till date, all the powers to create and regulate the university remain in the state list.

Schools, colleges, and universities were started by the state government when there was a right to education in the state list. During the reign of Kamaraj, he started primary schools for every 3 kms and a high school for every 5 kms. The Dravidian parties followed established medical and engineering colleges.

Tamil Nadu and its different Views!

No other state has government universities like Tamil Nadu. Every specific field has separate universities. A university for language, a university for sports, a university for open space, and so on. This structure is not in any other states in India.

Under the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution during the Emergency in 1976, the right to education from the State List was brought to the Concurrent List without any discussion. Thereafter, the influence of the Union Government weakened, and private domination of education began to increase. The Union government itself has not invested and created any new schools and universities. All they came up with was different plans which were of no use.

A very important question here is who runs the public schools, government colleges and universities.

The Union Government is undertaking only special and specific institutions. Few examples are

'Kendriya Vidyalaya' which is mainly for the children of government employees who are undergoing transfers. Likewise 'Navodaya' was created for a tribal population per district and Sainik School is for the children of soldiers.

In that sense, the central government does not run a public school. Public schools and colleges are run by the state government. The state government bears all the expenses and the administration. When the state government is making efforts to educate, who should have the rights and power of education in the state?

This is the exact point of Chief Minister Stalin when they can give us the responsibility to spend on schools, why don't they give us the power?

Why is it not fair?

They have gradually changed the purpose of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and taken away the power of the state government. Anna University was established by the State government, the Madras University was built and established by the State government but to decide how the structure of education should be, who will be the Dean of the university and what is the quality of education will be decided by the union Government. How can they justify this?

There is nothing to justify this act, CM Stalin and DMK government have always raised this concern in various ways, Stalin took the event as an opportunity to directly put this forward in front of the Prime Minister. Hope the Union Government considers this point and takes an appropriate decision!