KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her government would set up a high-power committee to survey unaided Khareji Madrasas.
Banerjee also announced facilities for students of the Madrasas who are taught religious principles in the institutions.
“These are Madrasas that teach the Islamic religion. We will not interfere with the functioning of these institutions. The survey will be held on only those Madrasas who agree to the request. A high-powered committee will be formed for the survey that will submit a report after six months,” she said at Nabanna, the state secretariat.
Mamata explained that the survey was aimed so that the students are brought under various welfare schemes of the state government.
“The high-powered committee will comprise experts, educationists, representatives from relevant government departments, and members from the local Muslim community, she added.
In another announcement, the state government said that it intends to recognise all the unaided Madrasas which had applied for recognition in the year 2013-14 and who fulfilled all the criteria. According to the state government, the number of such institutions is about 700.
The announcement assumes political significance as demands for recognition of unaided Madrasas have been raised by the minority community, which forms 32 per cent of the total electorates in Bengal and the ruling TMC appeared to have been enjoying the support of this particular community since the change of guard in the state in 2011.
Sources in the government said that the survey is an attempt to bring the unrecognized Madrasas under government surveillance.
A number of unregistered Madrasas came under the scanner of the state government following a blast in Khagragarh in 2014 and the involvement of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed terror outfit based in Bangladesh, came to light. Investigations revealed the JMB operatives used several unaided Madrasas for motivating young Muslims to work as operatives of the outfit.
Mamata also announced state-wide protests on August 6 at the block level against the deprivation of the West Bengal government by the Centre.
The announcement of the protests comes in the wake of the Calcutta High Court restraining Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s call to state gherao event outside the house of BJP leaders on August 5.