Presenting the interim Budget for 2009-10 in Lok Sabha, acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee claimed in Parliament on Monday that every effort has been made to fulfil promises made to the common man.

Student loans increased from Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) on March 31, 2004 to Rs 24,260 crore (Rs 242.6 billion) as on September 30, 2008, the minister said.

A sum of Rs 312.90 crore (Rs 3.12 billion) has been earmarked in the Interim Budget for 2009-10 for setting up of 6,000 model schools at block level as benchmark of excellence.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his Independence Day address in 2007 had announced setting up of 6,000 new high quality schools, one in every block of the country.

The education sector as a whole received Rs 41,978.21 crore (Rs 419.78 billion) as against Rs 37,366.57 crore (Rs 373.66 billion) in the revised estimate of 2008-09 budget, showing a jump of Rs 4,611.64 crore (Rs 46.11 billion).