Dehradun: The Dehradun administration sealed 11 madrasas in the district on February 28. This action was taken because these madrasas were not registered with the State Madrasa Board and the Education Department. Muslim organizations opposed this move of the administration and called it illegal.
The state government had launched a verification campaign before the local body elections in January. Under this, madrasas were inspected and the report was made public.
Dehradun District Magistrate Savin Bansal had said that there were 16 illegal and 8 registered madrasas in Sadar Dehradun area. In Vikasnagar area, 34 madrasas were running without registration, while 27 madrasas were registered. Doiwala had one registered madrasa and six unregistered ones, while Kalsi had one unregistered madrasa.
According to Vikasnagar sub-district magistrate Vinod Kumar, three madrassas in the area have been sealed since March 3, while other madrassas in Doiwala and Sadar areas have also been closed. In November last year, a report was submitted to the district administration, stating that many madrassas were operating without any government permission. After this, a team of the education department, minority welfare department, revenue department and police conducted an inspection. The investigation revealed that 20 madrassas in Vikasnagar were operating without registration.
After the inspection, some madrasas got registered by submitting the necessary documents, but the rest did not do so. After this, on February 28, these illegal madrasas were sealed on the orders of the district administration. The Dehradun District Magistrate said in his report that a total of 57 madrasas were running in the district without registration. After this, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that the state government will investigate the source and origin of such institutions in depth.
Muslim organizations protested in the city against this action. Muslim Seva Sangathan president Naeem Qureshi said that no recognition is required to run a madrasa. He accused the administration of sealing these madrasas without any notice or proper order. He said, we protested at the Collectorate on Tuesday and also today against the sealing of a mosque by the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority. We submitted a memorandum to the administration and warned that if this illegal sealing continues, we will protest outside the Secretariat.
The administration took action to seal 11 illegal madrasas in Dehradun, which the government said was a step taken to enforce the rules. On the other hand, Muslim organizations called it illegal and protested. The government says that it is necessary to register the madrasas and connect them with modern education, while the protesters say that it is wrong to take action without notice. Now it remains to be seen what further steps are taken in this matter and whether any consensus is reached between the administration and Muslim organizations or not.
