Finance Dept. nixes programme to incentivise border area students to opt for Kannada schools

As the State celebrates Karnataka Rajyotsava today and much is being said about the government’s intent of promoting Kannada, an initiative to encourage students in border areas to opt for Kannada medium education has not taken off for the lack of funding

In May this year, Marathi organisations invited students in the border taluks of Bidar, Belagavi, and Kalaburgi to join the Shivaji University in Kolhapur by offering free education. While this incentivisation did not go down well with Kannada organisations in Karnataka, it has now emerged that a programme to retain Kannada-speaking students in Kannada schools in the border areas in Maharashtra was nixed by the Finance Department earlier this year.

The Kannada Development Authority had included in its action plan for 2022-2023 Kannada Spoorthi Bhagya, a scheme in which ₹5,000 is to be deposited by the State government in the name of a student, who joins a Kannada-medium school in Class I and continues till Class X. The student will receive the proceeds once he/she attains 18 years.

However, the Finance Department asked the authority to stick to its original mandate of promoting Kannada language and culture in border areas and not take up activities that are being taken up by the government department. Further, it said funding for capital activities should be limited to completing the ongoing commitments.

“The Finance Department did not say no to the proposal. But stalled it. This was done despite the Karnataka Border Area Development Authority Act, 2010, specifying more than a dozen functions to the authority under which the Kannada Spoorthi Bhagya could be taken up,” a top government source said.

The programme was envisaged to be launched in Jatti taluk in Sangli district and Akkalkot taluk in Solapur district in Maharashtra, where more than 90% of the population speaks Kannada. It was estimated to cost about ₹2 crore initially in these two taluks and if the programme had to be expanded to other States, an initial amount of ₹5 crore was estimated.

“This would have been a recurring expenditure. However, this would have helped retain Kannada-speaking children in Kannada-medium schools in Maharashtra.”

At present, 172 Kannada-medium government and private schools operate in Maharashtra. There are about 152 Kannada-medium schools in Kasaragod district of Kerala.