– Akhilesh Tripathi
LUCKNOW, Uttar Pradesh, 12 Sep: The teachers and staff members of UP’s government madrasas who had gone for Haj and Umrah are being punished with a salary cut. They had gone to perform their religious duty only after duly sanctioned leave. This has been revealed in a complaint sent by the Teachers Association of Arabic Madrasas to the UP government.
There are 16460 Madrasas in UP registered with the Uttar Pradesh Madarsa Education Council. Five hundred and sixty Madrasas get grants from the government. The teachers and the staff of these government-aided madrasas get their salary from the government.
According to Madrasa Rules 2016, Madrasa teachers are entitled to all the leave that is granted to the secondary and basic teachers. Despite this, the district minority officers (DMO) of Mau, Azamgarh, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Ambedkarnagar, Ayodhya, Balrampur and Bhadohi have ordered to deduct the salary of the teachers and staff members who had gone for Haj and Umrah.
The surprising fact is that the teachers and staff members of the districts where the DMOs have ordered a deduction in salary had gone for Haj and Umrah with their duly sanctioned leave. However, the DMOs have not approved the Earned Leave. They have ordered deduction in the salary of such teachers and staff members. The affected persons allege that the DMOs are acting arbitrarily ordering the salary cut going against the rules.
Apart from this, the DMOs are putting pressure on management and principals to stop salary increments of those who have gone on leave without pay.
The teacher of Mau’s Jamia Aaliya Arabia, Rashiduzzaman Madani had gone for Umrah in the month of Ramadan. The teacher of Raunahi’s Madrasa Al Jamiatul Islamia in Ayodhya, Mohammad Rehan had gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj.
Mohammad Maslahuddin, a teacher at Tanda’s Madrasa Manzar-e-Haq in Ambedkarnagar had also gone for Haj. They all had completed the formalities and took earned leave to perform Haj but now their salary is being deducted.
It is also learned that there are more than 50 such cases where DMOs have ordered a deduction in salary and the concerned persons have received reduced salary.
Haji Diwan Saheb Zaman Khan, the General Secretary of Teachers Association of Arabic Madrasas and ex member of Madrasa Education Council, has raised this issue of arbitrarily salary deduction of Madrasa teachers and staff members.
He said that the teachers and employees had gone to perform Haj and Umrah after following the rules but now on their return they are getting the shocking news of their salary deduction. “It is a totally wrong action of DMOs to deduct the salary of such persons. This is subjugation of the minority by the district minority officers,” said the chief of the Madrasa association.
He has written to the Additional Chief Secretary of Minority Welfare and Waqf department, S. Monica Garg. He has requested the Secretary to cancel the order to deduct salary and stop the increment given by the DMOs.
It is alleged that the order of DMOs is actually given at the direction of the state government which is accused of an anti-Muslim approach.
