The Maharashtra government has sent show-cause notices to 10 high-profile schools in Mumbai for not admitting minority students despite enjoying minority status.
“These schools enjoy various facilities and concessions from the government on the pretext of being a minority school. However, we have reports that none of these schools enrolled a single minority student in the last three years,” said State’s Minority Affairs Minister Eknath Khadse.
All 10 schools are situated in South Mumbai. Of the 10, four belong to Christian and Parsi communities respectively, while the rest are of the Jain community.
The trusts or associations who run these educational institutes have been asked to present their case before the State government in the coming week. If the schools fail to respond, the government may suspend their minority status.
In all, the State has 2,490 educational institutions with minority status. In addition, there are 414 engineering and 306 medical institutes which enjoy this status. The government has also decided to initiate action against those institutes of higher education which fail to admit the prescribed minimum of 51 per cent minority students.
