Lucknow, Sep 15 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to bring in a proposal with an amendment to the Uttar Pradesh Ashashkiya Arbi-Farsi Viniyamavali, 2016, so that unregularised madrasa students can have access to modern education.

State Minority Welfare and Waqf Minister Dharampal Singh has instructed his department officials to bring a proposal for the amendment to the Act.

He said, "The objective of the state government is that students of the minority community can join the mainstream through religious education as well as modern education, including science, so that their all-round development can be ensured."

Vocational training and computer education should be implemented effectively in madrasas, he added.

Currently, there are 16,513 government-funded regularised madrasas and 8,449 unrecognised or unregularised madrasas in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Iftikhar Ahmad Javed, chairperson of UP Madrasa Board, has sent a written query to the state government, asking what needs to be done for unrecognised madrasas, as their owners were pressuring the board to give them government recognition.

"The unrecognised madrasa owners were expecting that after the government survey, they would all be given validation and affiliation to the board, but now they allege that they have been cheated. Why would unrecognised madrasa follow government norms if they are not getting affiliation," said Iftikhar.

He added, "The unrecognised madrasa owners have expressed several times that they want to introduce computers and science along with religious teachings, but they need the government's support."

Meanwhile, following the minister’s instructions, additional chief secretary Monica. S. Garg, said, "Guidelines received from the minister will be followed in letter and spirit, and work will be done to make the schemes related to the all-round uplift of the minority community dynamic and more effective."