Key Points

"At the meeting, barring the student wing (ABVP) of the RSS, the general decision that has been arrived at by all the student unions is that Kerala need not sign the agreement. Both the SFI (the student wing of the CPI-M) and the KSU (student wing of the Congress) agreed to it," Sivankutty said, after a meeting with recognised student unions.

"The federal principles are very clear, and hence it's the prerogative of the signing authority to sign or not, and none can force anyone to sign on the dotted line," he added.

"We operate based on a poll manifesto, and in it, there is no mention of this, and hence we cannot sign this," the minister said.

When the decision was being arrived at the meeting, the representatives of the ABVP, after expressing their strong desire that Kerala should sign the agreement, walked out of the office of Sivankutty.

The minister also pointed out that the Kerala government will seek legal recourse against the Centre's decision to withhold the release of Rs 1,500 crore to the state under various centrally sponsored education schemes.

PM SHRI is a scheme under the Union Ministry of Education, aiming to upgrade more than 14,500 existing schools across the country, and transform them into model institutions that embody the spirit of the National Education Policy-2020.

This project is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a total project cost of Rs 27,360 crore, which comprises a Central share of Rs 18,128 crore while the rest is to be borne by the state governments.

So far, 12,400 schools from primary level to higher secondary, in 670 districts across the country, have become part of the scheme. But schools under state boards in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal have not been part of the scheme as the agreement to this has not been signed.

- IANS