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Meerut Madrasas operating in Purkaji and Morna blocks of Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh have been asked to produce registration documents by the education department, failing which they will face fines of ₹10,000 per day if they continue to operate without the adequate permissions, according to people aware of the matter and official government documents.
Notices issued on October 17 by Purkaji block education officer Jyoti Prakash Tiwari said action would be initiated against those Islamic seminaries who fail to produce their documents of registration and affiliation within three days of receiving the notice. A fine of ₹10,000 per day will be levied if they fail to submit the required documents and continue operating, the notices added. HT has seen a copy of the notice.
Several madrasas, which impart Islamist education to Muslim students, are operating without registration, which is in violation of laws governing free and compulsory education to children, officials said.
Muzaffarnagar’s basic education officer, Shubham Shukla confirmed that notices were issued to madrasas by block education officers. In them, madrasa owners have been asked to submit their documents of registration for verification within a given period of time, he said. There is provision to slap a fine of ₹1 lakh if a madrasa does not stop functioning within a month after failing to produce documents of registration or affiliation, Shukla said.
There are about 24,000 madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, of which 16,000 are recognised, officials said.
The move met with opposition from the Muslim clerics and community leaders.
The notices are a violation of the Constitution which guarantees every citizen the liberty to follow their religion and education, said Maulana Nazar, vice-president of the state unit of the Jamiat Ulama-i- Hind. “ They (administration) are doing it only to harass madrasas and to target a particular community,” he said.
“This is just another attempt to consolidate anti-Muslim Hindu votes and in continuation of efforts to target a particular community,” said Samajwadi party leader, Sudhir Panwar.
Meanwhile, a government official in Lucknow said that about 4,000 madrasas in Uttar Pradesh are under the scanner for receiving foreign funds. The state government has set up a three-member special investigation team to investigate these seminaries, most of which are run along the India-Nepal border, he said, asking not to be named. The investigators will examine if the money received by them was used in any illegal activities such as terrorism or forcible religious conversion, the official added.
₹10k daily fine on unregistered madrasas in Muzaffarnagar – Hindustan Times
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