Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath. (Express Photo)

Rejecting Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion that Uttar Pradesh should close down hospitals to save money after it reportedly cut the education budget, the state government today clarified budgetary allocation for education has been increased by 25 per cent. “The total budget for primary, secondary and higher education in the UP budget for 2017-18 is Rs 62,185.25 crore as compared to the previous budget of 2016-17 of Rs 49,607.93 crore, which is 25.4 per cent higher,” an official spokesman said. He said the budget for primary education is Rs 50,142 crore this time compared to Rs 38,066.06 crore last time, which is 31.7 per cent more.

Similarly, the budget for secondary education is 4.8 per cent higher than the previous fiscal. This year Rs 9,387.44 crore has been earmarked for the department, compared to Rs 8,956.86 crore last time. For higher education, he said, the allocation this time is 2.7 per cent more than the last FY. For 2017-18 Rs 2,655.81 crore has been earmarked against Rs 2,585.01 crore in the last fiscal.

The Yogi Adityanath government presented its first annual budget in the state Assembly on July 11. The Congress vice president had yesterday mocked at the Uttar Pradesh government in a tweet, saying “great move CM Yogi – next you can save some more money by closing all the hospitals”.