Kolkata: The West Bengal Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department has set up an 18-member committee to review an ongoing survey aimed at identifying illegally run, unrecognised madrasas, often called "khariji madrasahs", in 12 districts.
The review team will begin district visits on July 15 and submit a detailed report to the department by July 21. The department said further action will follow based on the committee’s recommendations.
The 12 districts selected for the review are Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Nadia, Hooghly, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas.
District magistrates were earlier asked, in a June notification, to send comprehensive reports on madrasas in their jurisdictions to the state secretariat at Nabanna by July 5. Those preliminary returns indicated a high number of unrecognised institutions in the 12 districts, prompting a second round of surveys before the government takes final administrative decisions.
The June directive sought details including each madrasa’s founding date, registration status and records, student and staff numbers, whether the institution is residential, and the curriculum offered.
The review follows an announcement in May by Khudiram Tudu, the state’s Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education minister, that the new BJP-run government would clamp down on illegally operating madrasas. Tudu had said identified illegal institutions would be closed and those responsible punished, and that the administration would remain vigilant to prevent unrecognised madrasas from resurfacing.
(Inputs from IANS)