Yogi Adityanath Photo Credit: IANS Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath

Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday ordered madrasas in the state to reduce holidays around Muslim festivals while making it compulsory for them to stay shut on festivals of other faiths.

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Until now, madrasas in UP remained closed on Holi, Ambedkar Jayanti and during all Muslim festivals. However, the new calendar put forward by the UP government makes it mandatory for the madrasas to announce holiday on seven festivals/occasions - Mahavir Jayanti, Buddha Purnima, Raksha Bandhan, Mahanavmi, Diwali, Dussehra and Christmas.

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The calendar reduced discretionary holidays allowed to madrasas from 10 to four, reported The Times of India.

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"The 10-day holiday used to be at madrasas' discretion, but now this is predetermined and distributed around the birthdays of great leaders. It's important for students to know who these people were," the daily quoted registrar of the UP Madrasa Board Rahul Gupta as saying.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh minority welfare minister on Wednesday said that nearly 2,300 madrasas in the state run the risk of losing their recognition for not submitting their details on the website of Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Board.

The state's minority welfare department is considering a proposal to treat these Islamic institutions as "fake", UP Minority Welfare Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary said.

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"In Uttar Pradesh, there are 19,108 madrasas, which have been recognised by the state Madrasa Board. Of these, 16,808 madrasas have submitted their information on the website of the board. There are no details submitted by nearly 2,300 madrasas," Chaudhary told PTI in an interview.

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"Now where are these madrasas? We are considering them as fake. There is a possibility that action may be taken against these madrasas by end of January," Chaudhary said.

However, he added, the state government will wait till month-end for the madrasas to furnish information in this regard.