With 40 page report lying with Human Resources Development (HRD) ministry for consideration, the opinion of Muslim leaders here over the issue stands divided.

While some call it the need of hour, others oppose it tooth and nail by terming it as interference in imparting religious education.

The chief priest of Kashmir

, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq advocates the reform in madrasas but says that initiative should come from within the people and madrasa officials. He has reservations with government poking the nose in the affair.

"There is a dire need of reformist movement in all the madrasas. We are not against the introduction of formal education in madrasas along with the religious education. Even in our schools that come under the purview of Anjuman Nusrat-ul- Islam, such education is being imparted. But as far as government's direct interference is concerned, there will be a public reaction to it," said Mirwaiz.

However he suggests that Muslims scholars heading the leading madrasas in India should be consulted while forming any law pertaining to them.

On the other hand Muslim clergy running the madrasas in Kashmir have expressed their resentment for any central madrasa board that interferes in internal matters of madrasas and fully support the view put forth by Darul Uloom Deoband in this regard. The Deoband authorities have described the Central Madrasa board is the "antithesis to the soul of the madrasas" and an effort to entrap madrasa under state noose.

 "As far as madrasas are concerned, they are the institutes aimed at propagating religious education besides producing scholars on the subject. My view is that only Islamic scholars from madrasas can decide how to regulate it. We should be allowed to work freely without any interference. There should be no government control because once madrasas will be brought under the government legislation, they will loose the efficacy," said Mufti, Abdul Rashid, head of Darul Aloom Bilaliya in

Srinagar, a leading seminary.

Muslim clergies also consider that the proposal goes against the tradition of madrasas maintaining distance from the government, politics as well as the current trend of privatization.

"Our view is not different from that of the Deoband. The creation of the board goes contrary to our objectives," said Mufti Mohammed Rehamtullah, head of Darul Aloom Rahimya Bandipore.

Leaders like Maulana Showhat Ahmad Shah of Jamiat, Ahle-hadith argue that there is no alternative to reforms in madrasas for modernising their syllabus but at the same time government can not exonerate the contributions by them in educating the people particularly Muslims in far flung areas.

 "As for as madrasas in India are concerned, it has been accepted by government that they are apolitical and there are no subversive activities going on in such madrasas. Even government has accepted that madrasas have reached to the places where its Sarva Shiksha Abiyaan (SSA) scheme has failed to deliver," said Showkat.

However Showkat Ahmad says that government has the authority to clamp down any institutes that indulge in any subversive activities or breed terrorism but at the same time it is having an obligation not to cast doubts at each and every madrasa.

Mufti Bashir-u-Din is the head of Sharia't Board in Kashmir. He hold the view that government's proposal to bring forward a new law to regulate madrasas across the country is a welcome step.

"It is a very good proposal. We don't want episodes like Lal Masjid to get enacted over here. There is a need for such governing body that should regulate the religious institutes or madrasas,' said Muft Bashir-u-Din.

Many of the Taliban it is believed were educated in Saudi-financed madrassas in Pakistan that teach Wahhabism, an ex-pression of Islam that relies on strict interpretations.