The human resource development (HRD) ministry was asked by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Sunday to submit a status report on the Right to Education (RTE). This development points to UPA Government’s eagerness to table the Bill in the forthcoming budget session.
The ball set rolling with outgoing National Knowledge Commission (NKC) Chairman Sam Pitroda conferring with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he raised the issue of implementation of the RTE among other recommendations of the panel.
The RTE Bill, which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on 15 December, 2008, was, subsequently, referred to the Parliament standing committee on HRD. After its re-election in the Lok Sabha polls, the UPA Government accommodated the recommendations the House panel had made in the report it had submitted in February this year.
Now that the budget session is approaching the government has made up its mind to carry the Bill through.
In his meeting the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday, Pitroda laid emphasis on the need to introduce the RTE Bill. Innovation Universities and Higher Education Council are the other priorities of the knowledge panel.
Sibal, on his turn, had expressed confidence that the Bill would be passed by in the budget session.