Tamil Nadu may move SC against centre for Samagra Shiksha fund

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is likely to drag the union government to the Supreme Court soon to get the Rs 2,152 crore due under the Samagra Shiksha (SS) scheme from the centre. The state's inclination to move the SC has been strengthened by last month's report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education headed by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Sources in the school education department said the legal opinion received by the state from experts in this regard has been favourable. The move to approach the SC to get the SS funds comes as the centre has been obdurate in denying the funds despite political pressure from the ruling DMK, its allies, and almost all other parties in the state, including the AIADMK, PMK, NTK, and TVK. The BJP-led government is firm that the centre's share of funds for the scheme will be released only if Tamil Nadu signs the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for another centrally-sponsored scheme, PM SHRI. The MoU also includes consent to fully implement the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) along with the three-language policy that the state government is steadfastly opposed to. In its recent budget for 2025-26, the Tamil Nadu government said it would compensate for the funds withheld by the centre from its own kitty rather than signing the MoU. Though the tussle has been going on for more than a year, a senior minister told TNIE that the state government did not want to rush to the court without exhausting all the other options as the union government may use the case in the Supreme Court as a ruse to further delay the release of funds.