Assam govt to shut its madrasas, introduces Bill in Assembly
Assam Education and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (File Image/IANS)
Assam Education and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (File Image/IANS)
Guwahati: The Assam government introduced a Bill in the Assembly on Monday to shut over 600 madrasas run by it, which was strongly opposed by the opposition Congress and AIUDF.
Assam Education and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma introduced the Assam Madrassas Education (Provincialisation) Act of 1995 on the opening day of the three-day Winter Session.
“Once the Bill is passed (by the House), the practice of running madrasas by the government in Assam will come to an end, a practice which was started by the Muslim League government in pre-Independence Assam,” Sarma said in a tweet.
The Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a Muslim dominated party, strongly opposed the Bill and said that they would restart the madrasa education after coming to the power in the Assembly polls due in April-May next year.
Earlier, Sarma had said that the state government had decided to make education ‘secular’ and 620 madrasas administered by the state government would be shut.
However, madrasas run by private organisations in Assam would not be shut.
IANS
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