Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday ruled out any move to abolish madarsas after the Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi demanded for the same a few days ago."There is no solution to ban madarsas but my government will certainly go for major modernisation and up-gradation of the madarsas so that the students get quality education there," he said.Mr Adityanath, who was inaugurating the day-long meeting of the coordination meeting of north India minority affairs and social justice ministers here on Thursday, said that madarsas too have a role in the education system in the country.
"Like madarsas, the UP government will also improve the quality of education in the Sanskrit schools in the state so that the students could study job oriented courses," he said.The statement of the CM on madarsas contradicts the demand of Shia Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi, who had demanded that madarsas be banned as it was linked with terror organisations and was not imparting good education.
The UP CM ruled out the charges of the opposition that the government was working in a partial way. "The BJP government is working on the ideology of "sabka Saath, sabka vikas' and we are focusing in the development of all communities," he said.He also appreciated Union minister for minority welfare Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi for working on the uplift of the minorities in the country. 'After Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi became a Minister, implementation of minority welfare schemes have picked up speed," he stated.
Mr Naqvi, who is also attending the meeting, said that the Centre was doing everything required for the uplift of the minority communities with focus on their economic, education and health sectors."The BJP government would not support appeasement or vote politics done by earlier government to confuse the minorities," he claimed.
Ministers and officials of nine states-- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh are participating in the meeting.Officials said that the main agenda of the meeting is to assess the various developmental measures initiated by different state governments for education and socio-economic development for minorities.
The decision to hold the meet in Lucknow is also seen as another bid by the saffron party to stress that it is not opposed to the welfare of the minority communities but will not share the "discriminatory" approach of other parties as seen in BJP's attacks on the previous SP government over providing funds for maintenance of burial grounds that led to allegations of encroachment and rise in communal tensions.The Lucknow meet is the second of its kind as Chennai has hosted the first one. Kolkata and Mumbai will be the next destinations.(UNI)