The Kerala government on Wednesday told the Assembly that madrasa teachers are not paid from the state exchequer.
To a question from IUML legislator T V Ibrahim, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state government is not giving salary to madrasa teachers.
He said madrasa teachers have a contributory welfare fund, towards which a madrasa teacher and his local committee have to contribute Rs 50 each in a month.
In 2010, the state government had allowed Rs 10 crore as corpus for the welfare fund. The corpus fund is interest-free and used to meet various expenses, service charges and allowing grants for retiring madrasa teachers. Kerala has 23,809 madrasa teachers who are members in the welfare fund.
Ibrahim said there has been a campaign before the Assembly elections that the state was paying madrasa teachers.
The CM said there had been an attempt to depict that Muslims are making illegal gains. “Certain quarters engaged in the campaign with a communal intention. That issue has to be addressed,” he said.