Mini-NRC: Owaisi on UP's madrasa survey move

Lucknow, Sep 01: Criticising the Uttar Pradesh government decision to conduct a survey of unrecognised madrassas in the state, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi compared the move to a "mini-NRC".

"It's not a survey, but a mini-NRC. Some madrasas are under the UP madrassa board. The government cannot interfere with our rights under Article 30. They just want to harass Muslims," the AIMIM chief was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced to conduct a survey of unrecognized madrassas in the state to gather information about number of teachers, curriculum, and basic facilities available there, among others.

Minister of State for Minority Affairs Danish Azad Ansari said that the state government will conduct the survey as per the requirement of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in connection with the availability of basic facilities to the students in madrassas.

During the survey, details such as name of madrassa and the institution operating it, whether it is running in a private or rented building, number of students studying there, and information regarding facilities of drinking water, furniture, electricity supply and toilet will be collected, Ansari said.

Information regarding number of teachers in the madrassa, its curriculum, source of income and its affiliation with any non-government organisation will also be gathered, he said.

It is noteworthy that at present there are a total of 16,461 madrassas in Uttar Pradesh, out of which 560 are given government grants. New madrassas have not been included in the grant list for the last six years in the state.