As the three-day winter session of Assam Legislative Assembly begins on Monday, state Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced that he will be introducing a bill to repeal provincialisation of madrassa today.
Sarma said, “Once the bill is passed, the practice of running madrassa by Assam government will come to an end, a practice which was started by Muslim league govt in pre-Independence Assam.”
Earlier on December 13, the state cabinet had approved a proposal to close down all government-run madrassas and Sanskrit tols (schools). Speaking on the matter, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said, “Existing laws related to madrassas and Sanskrit tols will be repealed. A bill will be introduced in the next session of the Assembly.”
The decision to shut down all the state-run madrassas and Sanskrit tols was taken during the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, he said.
In the month of October, Education Minister Sarma had said there were 610 state-run madrassas across Assam and the government had been spending Rs 260 crore annually for these institutes. He had also said the State Madrassa Education Board, Assam would be dissolved.The minister had also mentioned that all the government-run madrassas would be converted to high schools and new admissions would be held for existing students as regular ones.
According to Sarma, the Sanskrit tols would be handed over to Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University. The infrastructure of Sanskrit tols would be used to convert them to centres of learning and research where Indian culture, civilisation and nationalism would be studied, he had said.However, senior BJP leader and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly Aminul Haque Laskar had said madrassas run by private parties would not be shut down.”These (private) madrassas will not be shut down as these have kept Muslims alive,” Laskar had said while laying the foundation stone for a madrassa in Cachar district in November.
The state cabinet also approved a separate proposal to ensure that the authorities of private educational institutes take permission from the government before making them operational, Patowary said.”Many educational institutes are being set up by private parties without any permission. They seek approval from the government after running these institutes for several months. This will not be allowed from now,” the minister said.
