West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Wednesday that around 100 schools were show caused following allegations of attempt to influence innocent minds through teachings that might promote religious intolerence.

The minister told the Assembly that the government had taken note of such activities taking place in some schools, particularly in parts of north Bengal and North 24-Parganas district in south Bengal. Chatterjee said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in her capacity as the Home minister, had also given him a list of some schools allegedly indulging in such activities and after due process the "no objection certificate" (NOC) of some of these institutions were cancelled.

Warning that the government would not allow any attempt to promote religious intolerance through teachings in some private schools, the minister said that educational institutions would have to adhere to the syllabus of the board to which these are affiliated.

Chatterjee points out that many of these private schools get affiliation from different central boards of education and then take an NOC from the state, making it difficult for the state to directly act against them. The minister was replying to a question on steps being taken by the state government over reports of some private educational institutions teaching outside their syllabus and curriculum with some hidden religious agenda.