'Shut unauthorised madrassas or pay Rs 10,000 fine per day': UP govt to unrecognised madrasas amid foreign funding probe

New Delhi, Oct 24: After the Yogi Adityanath-led government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe foreign funding in madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, notices have been issued to madrasa managers lacking proper documents, with some even being asked to pay Rs 10,000 a day to remain operational.

 

 

Notably, the SIT is running probe in madrasas in Muzaffarnagar that running without proper registration or recognition.

 

More than 100 such madrasas have been found in the Muzaffarnagar district alone, of which 12 have been served notices declaring that "Rs 10,000 per day would be charged unless they close immediately".

 

At present, UP has over 25,000 functional madrasas, of which only 16,513 are recognised by the UP Board of Madrasa Education. According to a report by Free Press Journal, a bulk of these unrecognised madrasas—around 4,000 in number—are located along the 579 km border that UP shares with Nepal.

 

 

Besides, the SIT during its investigation will be reviewing the accounts of madrasas that receive funds from abroad. Furthermore, the SIT will analyse how the money collected through foreign funding is utilised. The three-member SIT will investigate if foreign funds received by state madrasas are being used for illegal activities such as terrorism, conversion and so on.

 

It is worth recalling that in February this year, the state government had initiated an exercise to track the source of money that is reaching over 1,500 unrecognised madrasas in the Indo-Nepal border areas.

 

In October last year, it was revealed in a state government survey that there are over 7,500 unrecognised madrasas in the state. The Uttar Pradesh government had on September 1 last year announced that it would survey unrecognised madarsas of the state to ascertain information such as details of teachers and students, curriculum, and its affiliation with any non-government organisation.