Guwahati: Assam Legislative Assembly has passed a bill, which sought to abolish all state-run Madrassas and transform them into regular schools. The bill was passed on Wednesday.
Assam Minister of Finance, Education, Health and PWD, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma took it to Twitter to express his happiness over the passage of this new bill.
"Glad that the Bill pertaining to repeal of Provincialisation of Madrassas has been passed, even as Assam Congress and AIUDF expectedly staged a walkout in Assembly. All Madrassas, being run under government, stand converted into regular educational institutes wef April 1, 2021," Dr. Sarma tweeted.
On Monday, Dr Sarma tabled a bill to repeal the provincialisation of Madrassas in Assam. Speaking to the reporters, he said that the government of Assam have introduced a bill whereby all the Madrassas of the state will be converted into institutes of general education and no Madrassa will be established by the government in the future. He further said that the government is happy to introduce this bill to bring a truly secular curriculum in the education system.
Earlier in December 14, Dr Sarma said that in order to make education secular in the state, 198 high madrasas and 542 other madrasas in will operate as any other general educational institute and will not give admission to students for theological studies.
On Monday, the government of Assam introduced another bill in the assembly, which seeks to protect the economically vulnerable individuals and groups from the hardship of being charged exorbitant interest rates and coercive means of recovery by money lending agencies or microfinance institutions. Assam Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma tabled The Assam Micro Finance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Bill, 2020, on the first day of Winter session of the assembly. The bill proposes "to create an effective mechanism to regulate the microfinance institutions or money lending agencies or organisations".