UP madrassas under Yogi government lens

LUCKNOW: All madrassas across Uttar Pradesh will be geo-tagged by the state government through a GPS-based service as part of what the BJPled dispensation has described as its efforts to weed out fake students and staff. In addition, the state government has also asked madrassas to share maps of classrooms, photographs of the building, and the teachers' bank account details. The institutes have also been told to upload each employee's Aadhaar card details on a government portal.

The order, a copy of which is with TOI, was issued on July 31. The government has directed the registrar of the UP Madrassa Shiksha Parishad to include all the state's 16,000 recognised madrassas in the geo-tagging initiative. Consequently, each madrassa will be identified by a `unified district information system for education (UDISE)' code.

Issued by principal secretary Monika Garg, the order states that each madrassa would have to be registered with a newly launched government website -madarsaboard.upsdc.gov.in -by Octo ber 15 to retain their recognition and state government aid.

“Development“ has been listed as one of the eight main reasons behind the move.“The launch of the portal and other services is to ensure development, competency-mapping, simplification of process and improvement in edu cation quality of madrassas,“ says the order.

According to the order, the move aims to “curtail duplication of teaching staff as well as beneficiary students“.The bank accounts of the teaching staff and education related officials at the madrassas will be verified through a public finance management system.

“Only after the financial details of teachers and staff have been collected and their bank accounts verified, (will) their salaries be disbursed,“ the order states. As part of the initiative, each madrassa will also have to state its building layout, area of campus, etc on the website. “There would not be any tweaking in the data related to the madrassas as all district minority officers (DMOs) will be able to lock the details with a digital signature. No madrassa will be able to alter the data related to any madrassa after thorough verification,“ the order states.

Ahead of this Independence Day , the Yogi Aditya Nath government had issued a controversial order making videography of celebrations mandatory for madrassas, but not government schools.