Over 400 madrasas in West Bengal to shut down

The Suvendu Adhikari Government has decided to close down 250 unrecognised and unaided Madrasas in the State by the end of December this year.

This is in addition to the closure of 252 khariji madrasas, a decision taken a week ago. The Madrasas with low student enrollments would be closed this time. Bengal has more than 4,000 Madrasas.

Sources also said the Government was considering gradually closing 2,500 Madrasas that lack facilities and do not fully follow the State curriculum.

Sources said students from these Madrasas would be gradually brought into the mainstream education system.

In a parallel decision, the council of ministers also cleared proposals to increase the grant for Ashram hostels under the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and library grant scheme from Rs 1,800 to Rs 3,300.

Apart from the decision to close down madrasas, the council of ministers decided to recruit of around 1.51 lakh personnel across various government departments.

This would include recruiting about 12,000 personnel for West Bengal Police and 4,000 for Kolkata Police, sources said.

Inside sources said the Chief Minister directed two senior ministers to devote more time to office work, preparing policies and plans, instead of relying too much on field inspections. He also asked them to refrain from making unwarranted public statements.