Author: TTP Editor
Publication: The True Picture
Date: July 16, 2017
URL:   http://www.thetruepicture.in/pti-deliberately-run-false-news-yogi-govts-budget-allocation-education/

A PTI report from July 11, 2017 claimed as below:

 “The government has also cut the budgetary provisions for secondary education and higher education compared to that of previous government dispensation.

In the 2016-17 budget presented by the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav government, a provision of Rs 9,990 crore was made for secondary education, which has came down to only Rs 576 crore in the Yogi Adityanath government, a reduction of Rs 9,414 crore.

The higher education sector also saw a significant cut. Last year’s budget had a provision of Rs 2,742 crore, while this year it was Rs 272.77 crore, marking a shortfall of Rs Rs 2,469.73 crore.”

 This report has been the source of much outrage and horror among certain sections of the media and social media.
 But does this report stand up to the facts?

 The devil, as always, is in the detail.

 PTI seems to have not looked at the Budget Estimate documents at all but only at the parts of the Budget Estimate document that were spoken about in the UP Budget speech. This is a basic error since most budgets have a detailed fine print, out of which only some parts are mentioned in the speech.

 A look at the Budget Estimate 2017-18 allays all doubts.

Secondary Education allocations:

 In Akhilesh Yadav’s 2016-17 budget, secondary education was allocated an estimation of Rs 8956.83 crores and not Rs 9,990 crore as mentioned by PTI.

 The Yogi Adityanath government has allocated Rs 9387.43 crores for secondary education in its budget. This is clearly more than Akhilesh government’s allocation.

Higher Education allocations:

 For higher education, the Akhilesh government had allocated Rs 2585 crores in the 2016-17 UP Budget. The Yogi Adityanath government in its Budget 2017-18 has allocated Rs 2655.80 crores. This too is a clear increase over the earlier allocation.

Overall, both secondary education and higher education have seen increases over earlier allocation and not cuts. Given that these figures are out there in the public domain, it does make for much speculation on how PTI came up with its report.

 When someone sees a fall of Rs 9400 crore or more in allocation towards secondary education, and a decrease of more than Rs 2000 crore towards higher education, it should have sent alarm bells ringing in PTI’s reporting desks that a cross-check may be required for a divergence of this proportion.

 Was PTI running a deliberately false report to malign a newly formed state government? Was it due to incompetence, or was it deliberate malice?

 Anyway, PTI’s probable machinations are in the realm of speculation. But what is true is that there are many media outlets that have run this report which has caused much outrage and some would call this “fake news”.