Portal launched for online registration of madrasas in UP

In a bid to check “irregularities in madrasas”, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday launched a portal of UP madrasa board for online registration of all such Islamic institutions.

“There were a number of complaints of irregularities in madrasas and it was decided to make the registration online so that details of all madrasas, their management, teachers, etc are available online,” UP Waqf Minister Mohsin Raza told reporters in Lucknow.

This is a step towards digitisation which is on the priority of the Yogi Adityanath government, he said.

The move will bring transparency as all the details of the madrasa will be available online, the minister said.

“The madrasa education should also be modern like in other educational institutions. With modernisation, students of madrasas will be able to get technical education and they will get better job opportunities,” Minority Welfare cabinet minister Lakshmi Narain Chowdhury said at the programme where the portal was launched.

There are over 19,000 recognised and 560 aided madrasas in the state, he said, adding that the new portal will help in improving the quality of madrasa education.

Attacking the previous non-BJP governments, Chowdhury alleged that they used madrasa for “appeasement” and as vote banks and there was no record of teachers, students, payments, registrations and other schemes maintained by them.

“Our government’s priority is to give better and job- oriented education to all youths so that doctors and engineers are produced from these madrasas,” he said.

Asked later by mediapersons about action likely to be taken against madrasas where national anthem was not sung on Independence Day, he said such madrasas “lack patriotism” and action against them is justified.

“Reports are coming from madrasas... We are looking into the matter,” he said but did not elaborate on action likely to be taken against such madrasas.

MoS minority welfare Baldev Aulakh had earlier warned action against madrasas if they did not follow the order to them to unfurl the national flag and recite the national anthem as part of Independence Day celebrations.

At the launch programme Principal Secretary of the department Monika Garg said, “The portal is an attempt to connect all madrasas to a unified ecosystem. It will not only help in improving quality of education, transparency and also check exploitation of teachers.”

She said that affiliation of new madrasas and their aid will be done through this portal.