Kanpur: An Islamic secondary school called Islamia madrasa in Ghatampur was razed down by local municipal authorities on Wednesday, a day after Eid-ul-Fitr, on charges that the building was constructed partially on government land.
According to the authorities, the madrasa was allotted 14 biswa (18,900 sq.ft) land of its own, but the building of the madrasa spawned over 4 bighas (1,08,000 sq.ft). Pucca construction was done by illegally occupying five bighas and six biswa of government land, which was used for a barn, pond, and pond pit.
A video of the incident claims that the madrasa was razed without prior information. The students can be seen salvaging copies of the Quran and study books. “Madrasa student were not even given a chance to extract Quran & other holy books,” says the caption.
The Kanpur Outer Police issued a statement on social media responding to the video, saying that the process of razing the Islamia secondary school was done in a “completely peaceful procedure.” The SDM of Ghatampur said, “No religious sentiments were hurt, and no holy books were desecrated. The entire procedure was carried out in a peaceful manner.”
According to media reports, the municipality has been planning to demolish the illegal construction for the last 1.5 years, but due to non-availability of resources first and then elections, the work kept getting postponed.
In the year 1994, madrassa operators had got government land registered in their names by manipulating the revenue record, after which a lawsuit followed. In the year 2020, the land under dispute was reclaimed by the government. Since then, efforts were on to demolish the madrasa.
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