New Delhi: A landmark act providing for free and compulsory education for children aged 6-14 could cost Rs.171,000 crore anually to implement but the share of the centre and the states in this has yet to be decided, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.

"There was a meeting of state education ministers here on August 31, 2009, where it was unanimously felt that the scheme should be implemented. However, we have not yet taken a decision on the financial allocation by the centre and the states.

Once this is decided, we will go ahead with the implementation," Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

In this context, he noted that the allocation ratio for the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan for the primary level was 60:40 between the centre states, with this becoming 50:50 by 2012.

Responding to a supplementary from Congress' Karan Singh on whether the architecture for implementing the act was in place, Sibal said: "We have set in motion the process by establishing a committee to frame the architecture." IANS