Lucknow: Shutting down madarsas cannot be the means to uplift the Muslims, rather, modernisation of these institutions is the need of the hour, said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

CM Yogi was speaking at the inauguration of the Regional Development Coordination Conference of Minorities Welfare Ministers in Lucknow on Thursday.

In a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath, Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi demanded that all madarsas in the country be shut down. He alleged that they encouraged Muslim students to 'become terrorists'.

The chief minister said, “Shutting down madarsas is not a solution to the problem, instead we should look at modernising them. Even Sanskrit schools should do the same. Also, madarsas need to be computerised. When we talk of minority welfare, a lot of questions arise in front of us.”

He added that the Prime Minister’s Skill Development programme is being run only to take care of the minorities’ development.

“If any part of our body stops working, then we are called divyang. If a person is discriminated against in society, then he feels neglected. The ministry is vested with the huge responsibility to take care of them,” CM Yogi said.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was also present at the event along with state ministers from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu, Kashmir, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh.

“Ever since Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi took charge of the minority affairs ministry, there has been a significant growth in the implementation of minority welfare schemes in Uttar Pradesh. In his nine-month tenure, more than 100 schemes were started for the minorities,” the chief minister said.