Uttar Pradesh's basic education department has issued a notice stating that madrasas found operating in Muzaffarnagar district without registration will have to pay a penalty of Rs 10,000 per day. The notice was issued by an officer of the basic education department to over a dozen madrasas operating without proper registration and they were asked to produce relevant documents.
According to officials, there are about 24,000 madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, of which 16,000 are recognised and 8,000 unrecognised.
The madrasas that have been issued notices have been asked to produce their relevant documents within three days of receiving the order or face action according to the rules.
"If the madrasas are found operating without recognition, they will be fined Rs 10,000 per day," the notice read.
Muzaffarnagar Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Shubham Shukla said the district minority department has informed his office that more than a hundred madrasas being run here do not have registration or recognition in the district and are functioning against the norms.
Taking strong exception to the notice served to madrasas, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, an organisation of Indian Muslims, called the education department's order "unlawful".
Maulana Zakir Husain, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh unit of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, said the madrasas in the state are "being harassed by serving them illegal notices only to target a particular community".
"The madrasas are providing free of cost education to the students, they will not be able to pay the fine of Rs 10,000 per day," Mr Husain said.
Meanwhile, according to a senior official in Lucknow, about 4,000 madrasas in the state are under the scanner for receiving foreign funds.
The state government has set up a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to investigate 4,000 madrasas, most of them run along the Indo-Nepal border, which are allegedly receiving funds from abroad, the official said.
The SIT will examine if the money received by them was used in any illegal activities, such as terrorism or forcible religious conversion, the official added.
