Every Keralite is a Rs-26,067 debtor, But...
25/07/2012 00:18:32  

..still no scarcity of funds for schemees like 'Minority Promoters'!

Every Keralite is a Rs-26,067 debtor
PNS | THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani on Tuesday informed the Assembly that the total public debt of the State stood at Rs 87,063.83 crore as on May 1, 2012. As per this the per-capita burden of public debt on Keralites is Rs 26,067.

The debt burden on the State as in March, 2011 was Rs 78,673.24 crore, Mani said, adding that it had grown by Rs 8,000 crore in a year till May. The State had borrowed Rs 6,453.31 crore from the Centre and a request had been made for waiver of Rs 2,924 crore from this, the Finance Minister told the Assembly.

Mani said the Government was trying to bring down the level of borrowings and thus to reduce the debt burden gradually. Mani and other leaders of the Congress-led ruling UDF had, after coming to power in May, 2011, harshly criticized the former CPI(M)-led LDF Government for unrestricted borrowings.

Meanwhile, Education Minister PK Abdu Rabb told the House that the State Government had initiated steps to improve quality of education and basic infrastructure in the self-financing engineering colleges having a pass rate of less than 40 per cent.

While making a statement in the Assembly on the various steps taken by the UDF Government to improve the standard of private self-financing engineering colleges in the wake of a recent High Court direction to take steps to close down underperforming colleges, he said, “Closing down these colleges and rehabilitating the students would lead to a lot of problems.”

The Government was of the view that the existing colleges should be allowed to function with stern measures to improve standard, he said. However, the Government would have to take steps to close down the colleges if these institutions failed to improve performance and quality even after the implementation of these measures, he said.

The High Court had severely criticized the performance of several self-financing colleges as the pass rate was very less and many colleges lacked basic facilities. The Minister said all these colleges would have to take steps to improve their standard within three years.