FIR against 100 madrassas in Azamgarh for ‘flouting norms’

VARANASI: The police on Sunday said it has lodged FIRs against over 100 madrassas in Azamgarh district on charges of non-compliance of prescribed standards and other irregularities.
The FIRs were registered following a complaint by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) after a probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) ordered by the state govt found anomalies in the functioning of these madrassas.
"Of over 700 madrassas in Azamgarh, 313 were under scrutiny for non-compliance of govt norms. A special investigation team (SIT) probe, however, found that 219 of them were found non-compliant," said Varsha Agarwal, district minority welfare officer.
The SIT also detected several other major irregularities and recommended filing of legal cases against such madrassas. In fact, the SIT investigation revealed that in 2009-10, several madrassas were granted recognition and funding without any physical verification.
When the govt was formed under chief minister Yogi Adityanath in 2017, complaints regarding tainted madrassas started pouring in, prompting investigations, which found that 387 madrassas were valid as they were running according to govt rules and standards, while 313 had numerous irregularities.
Taking note of this, the state govt handed over the entire investigation to the SIT, which found that many madrassas were found only on paper.
Among them, 39 madrassa operators had even benefited from the modernisation scheme in collusion with the then officials and employees.
The SIT completed its investigation, which revealed that 219 madrassas were against the standards, and submitted its report to the govt in 2022. Following the SIT report, the govt instructed to file cases against such madrassa operators.