The Central funding of Islamic s emi n a r i e s i n emb at t l e d Jammu and Kashmir is turning out to be a candal rather than a means to modernise the religious institutions. The graft-tainted Education Ministry as asked the directors of school education department in Kashmir and Jammu provinces to heck out on the coordinators of beneficiary seminaries. Two leading Islamic scholars — Rehmatullah Mir and Ghulam Rasool Hami — who run separate chains of madarsas, have denied acceptance of central unding and described the official claims as "scandalous to berate our activities". Human Resource evelopment Ministry revealed that 372 madarsas across Jammu and Kashmir, with highest number in Rajouri district of Jammu, were recipients of central funding. Earlier, the Pandora’s box opened through n RTI application by one Mohammad Sidiq Poswal revealed that 8 crore have been provided to adarsas o help them establish on modern lines. The Ministry runs a special countrywide scheme to upgrade the standards of Islamic seminaries. It was revealed that 519.85 lakh have been paid to 722 teachers ssigned to teach religious e d u c a t i o n t o t h e s t u d e n t s . Besides, an amount of 55.80 lakh is pent annually on providing learning material like books, magazines and other study material. On the stablishment of libraries, 186 lakh have been spent by the equal number of madarsas. The department as also released 114 lakh for e s t a b l i s h i n g s c i e n c e a n d computer laboratories with Rs one akh disbursement f o r e a c h madarsa. T h e d i s - closures created a stir in the Islamic seminaries cross t h e S t a t e , w h i c h h a v e g r o w n l i k e mushrooms during the past two decades. The rominent madarsa heads described the revelations as scandalous, saying that they run the schools with pecific public donations and have never accepted any State or central funding. "We have never received ny aid from the Government, not e v e n a s i n g l e p e n ny " , s a i d Rahmatullah Mir, head of restigious Darul Uloom Rahimiya l o c at e d i n n o r t h K a s hmi r ’s B an d ip or a tow n . R a h mi y a , which follows the Deobandi school of thought, has imparted Islamic education to thousands of students during the past three decades. On its part, the authorities revealed names of different ecipient madarsas and teachers but the effort boomeranged. Most of the listed madarsas turned out to b e f a k e o r denied having t a k e n a n y money. One of the b ene f i c i ar i e s of the central aid, ccording t o o f f i c i a l re cord s , ha s been termed as a madarsa at Aishwukam v i l l a g e i n s o u t K a s h m i r ’ s Anantnag dist r i c t , w h e r e 1.44 lakh has been shown provided as salary to two eachers, 50,000 for the library and 15,000 for teacher learning material. However, the names of the eachers and the madarsas have not been revealed giving rise to doubts about the authenticity of the fficial claim. Interestingly, a Darul Uloom that exists in Ashmuqam is run by State-owned Waqf Board hat denies having received any central funding. On Thursday, heads and representatives of a chain of slamic seminaries under the banner Majlis-e-Ulemai Ahli Sunnat convened an emergency meeting in Srinagar. Later speaking at a Press conference, chief of the amalgam Ghulam Rasool Hami said that none f their madarsas applied for central funding. He described it scandalous to berate the Islamic seminaries nd sought thorough probe into the funding. Head of Sawtul Awliya Abdur Rashid Dawoodi, who ropagates Barelwi school of thought is shown as beneficiary of State funding. He vehemently denied having received any aid. Sources say that there could be scandalous nexus between some officials of he ducation department and individuals faki n g a s m a d a r s a o w n e r s . Embarrassed by the isclosure, Minister of Education Peerzada Mohammad Saeed has asked for verifying the authenticity of arul Ulooms, shown as Governmentfunding recipients. L a s t y e a r, t h e C e n t r a l Government eleased a whopping 8 crore for winter schooling to compensate for the loss of academic session due to summer unrest. The schools were eventually closed due to harsh winter but the money is alleged to ave been misused.
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