The Yogi Adityanath government plans to “verify” the funding sources of over 1,500 unaided madrasas that have declared their sole source of earning is the zakat — donations that Muslims make for charitable causes as a religious obligation.

The decision follows a survey of the state’s 2,000 aided and 15,000 unaided madrasas between August and October to verify their land records, sources of earning, classroom infrastructure and teacher salaries, among others.

Over 1,500 madrasas in eastern Uttar Pradesh had during the survey cited the zakat as their only source of funds, state minority welfare minister Dharampal Singh said on Monday.

“There are about 500 such madrasas in Siddharthnagar, 400 in Balrampur, 400 in Shravasti, 200 in Lakimpur Kheri and 60 in Maharajganj,” Singh said.

“A meeting of the minority welfare department with the chief minister in the chair will formulate a modus operandi to verify whether these madrasas are really run with genuine donations.

“They themselves have said they receive the donations from individuals and institutions in places as far as Calcutta, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. We need an extensive interdisciplinary team to probe the matter since some of them have claimed they receive zakat from Nepal and Dubai.”

Explaining the zakat, Khalid Rashid Firangimahli, a Sunni cleric of Lucknow, said: “Those who have assembled wealth worth 52.5 tola (about 612 grams) of silver must start giving zakat. They are supposed to give 2.5 per cent of their annual income as zakat. Personal residences or vehicles are not included while calculating this wealth.”

Adityanath and some BJP leaders had in the past alleged that madrasas were producing terrorists.

Danish Azad Ansari, junior minority welfare minister, said some madrasas in the state were unregistered and unaffiliated to any recognised school education board or university.

“The chief minister will decide what action is to be taken against them,” Ansari said.