Police carry out madrasa verification drive, find 219 in Azamgarh ‘only on paper’, book 110 people

The highest number of the FIRs has registered in Phoolpur, followed by Jiyanpur and Didarganj and Ahiraula police stations. The cases have been registered under IPC section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent).

“A total of 219 FIRs are to be registered in this matter. The remaining will be filed soon,” said Assistant Superintendent of Police, Azamgarh, Chirag Jain.

The inquiry was conducted by a Special Investigation Team of the UP Police’s Economic Offence Wing following a government directive.

According to the police, an inquiry into madrasas affiliated with the UP Board of Madrasa Education, on the basis of details uploaded by the managers concerned on the Madrasa Portal, revealed that 313 madrasas in Azamgarh were operating in violation of prescribed standards.

The police added that the verification process also found that a significant number of these madrasas existed only on paper, allegedly to embezzle government funds. A total of 219 madrasas were found to be non-existent, including 39 that had received government funds as honorarium for teachers under the centrally sponsored madrasa modernisation scheme.

Police added the District Minority Welfare Officer, Azamgarh, provided the details of honorarium paid to teachers under the scheme, operational since 1994, only for two years — 2014-15 and 2015-16 — revealing that these madrasas received over Rs 62 lakh. However, further details were not disclosed, which hints at the possibility that the embezzled amount could be much higher.

Police said no information was provided by the minority welfare department regarding whether the remaining 180 madrasas had received funds. Police added that it cannot be ruled out that the managers of these madrasas fraudulently presented them (madrasas) as operational and illegally obtained or attempted to obtain government funds, including teachers’ honorariums and scholarships for minority students, under the madrasa modernisation scheme.

These madrasas also uploaded false details regarding buildings, students etc on the madrasa portal, a police officer said, adding the state government accepted the recommendation to register cases against these non-existent madrasas and their managers.

What the madrasa modernisation scheme entails

Under the Madrasa Modernisation Scheme, “modern” teachers who are graduates used to earn Rs 6,000 a month and those who are postgraduates were paid Rs 12,000. Instead of salaries, these teachers have been receiving the “additional money” — Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 for graduate and postgraduate teachers respectively — that was announced by the state government in 2016 after allegations by the modern teachers that their salary disbursal was “irregular”.

There were over 21,000 modern teachers posted across 7,442 registered madrasas running across the state. They were hired to teach subjects such as Hindi, English, maths, science and social science to nearly 10 lakh students.

Last January, nearly six years after salaries of teachers working under the Centre’s madrasa modernisation scheme across UP were allegedly stopped, the state government also stopped paying the honorarium or “additional money” it was giving these teachers since 2016. These teachers – known as “modern” teachers – had alleged that they have not been paid salaries since 2017.