Trustees and managements of minority-run education institutions in Marxist-ruled West Bengal are up in arms against the state government for deliberately delaying issue of no objection certificates (NOCs), which are mandatory for promoting and administering schools, colleges and universities. Although Article 30 of the Constitution of India confers a fundamental right to all minorities, whether based on religion or language, to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, West Bengal education officials argue that the Constitution is silent on NOCs, says an office bearer of the 345-member West Bengal Association of Minorities Educational Institutions (WBAMEI) who requested anonymity.Adds Herod Mullick, secretary of Bangiya Christiya Pariseba (Bengal Christian Services): The insistence on NOCs is nothing but a power grabbing mechanism. According to Mullick, the state governments minority affairs and madrasah education department, promoted in the wake of the well-intentioned West Bengal Minorities Commission Act 1996, has designated itself the competent authority under the Act and has usurped the right to determine the minority status of education institutions and issue NOCs.
Unsurprisingly, the department aka competent authority, has gone about exercising its self-appointed role of referee in typical bureaucratic fashion. Minority schools are asked to submit 15 documents when they apply for a NOC. Three months later, the department asks for ten additional documents and four months later, yet another set of documents, says Mullick.
The bureaucratic sloth and incompetence of the department is confirmed by the rector of a Kolkata-based Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) minority school. By the end of this staggered process, the first batch of documents is usually misplaced and one has to go through the rigmarole once again. Its sheer harassment of minority schools whose sin is that they are more popular than government schools, he says.
Moreover the state government retains its vice-like grip over the school education system by issuing NOCs with a validity of only three years. Institutions, which fail to obtain renewal of recognition before the end of the expiry period, shall be treated as non-minority institutions, says a department circular which exempts old established schools from the obligation to renew their NOCs.
Nevertheless according to WBAMEI, this is an onerous imposition as there are more than 2,000 ‘new minority schools in the state, run by Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities. Therefore the minority schools association has decided to oppose the short-term three-year minority status NOC granted by the state government. Says Abdur Rauf, working president of WBAMEI: We demand that minority status be granted permanently.
The auguries for this demand of WBAMEI are good. One of the commitments under the National Commission for Minorities Education Commission Act, 2004 is protection of the fundamental rights of minorities guaranteed under Article 30 of the Constitution. Therefore under the said Act, a National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) has been duly established.
WBAMEI office bearers believe that they have the right to appeal to NCMEI to resolve problems faced by minorities seeking NOCs for establishing educational institutions of their choice. Moreover the commission is specifically empowered to adjudicate disputes relating to the minority status of educational institutions. I believe that the establishment of NCMEI has conferred true freedom and autonomy upon minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. This is a very positive development for Indian education, says Rauf.
Quite clearly WBAMEI intends to file a petition in NCMEI against the West Bengal government for issuing limited duration NOCs to minority institutions. The state government has a lot of explaining to do.
Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)