Uttarakhand Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday alleged that large number of madrasas are running illegally in the state including those displaced from Uttar Pradesh. He said district administrations are investigating illegal madarsas and their fund sources in the state following orders by the government.
“Investigations have been ordered to unearth illegal madarsas not registered with Uttarakhand Madarsa Board. Besiding identifying illegal madrasas their funding routes will also be traced by the investigating bodies as direct by the state government. All district magistrates have began investigatios in their respective areas” the Chief Minister.
According to the Director, Minority Welfare, Rajendra Kumar, it’s being probed whether the madrasas under scanmer are registered with State Madarsa Board or not. Apart from this it’s also being investigated as to how many madarsas have come up in Uttarakhand after being displaced from Uttar Pradesh. It’s alleged that large number of these Madarsas have come up in Uttarakhand after they were displaced from UP, owing to crack down by Yogi Adityanath government there. According to the officials majority of the illegal madarsas displaced from UP have been set up in Udhamsingh Nagar, rural areas of Haridwar and Dehradun districts. Investigations being done by the district administrations also involve tracing funding source of these illegal madarsas.
It’s notable that earlier, during a surprise visit by the members and head of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights many illegal madrasas were found in Dehradun. Following this commission directed the state government to close all illegal madrasas running in the state.
State Minority Welfare Department officials further said that action for closure of illegal madarsas will be taken after district administrations submit their report to the government. According to these officials, so far around 129 madrasas have been found illegal in Udhamsingh Nagar district bordering UP. It’s alleged that large number of illegal madrasas are also functioning in Dehradun as they are not registered with State Madrasa Board.
Minority Welfare Department officials have confirmed anonymously that many madarsas functioning in Uttarakhand were those that were uprooted forcibly from Uttar Pradesh. Even students in these madrasas are from UP and other states.