Calcutta, April 16: The government is going to set up a madarsa service commission to recruit teachers.

The West Bengal Madarsa Service Commission Bill will be discussed at a meeting of the state cabinet tomorrow. After the cabinet gives its approval, it will be introduced in the Assembly during the budget session this year.

The draft bill says the proposed commission will work “in the same manner” as the school service commission through which teachers are recruited.

“It will set up panels of teachers for recruitment in a free, fair and transparent manner,” the proposed legislation states.

Before the bill is passed in the House and converted into an act, the government has decided to make an initial provision of Rs 5 lakh for setting up the commission.

Madarsa teachers, like their counterparts in state-aided schools, will be paid by the government.

Minority affairs minister Abdus Sattar said the new commission would ensure speedy recruitment of teachers who are “well versed’’ in madarsa education.

“The school service commission has to set up panels for several disciplines and, hence, it takes a lot of time to fill up vacant posts in madarsas…. Our government plans to recruit a few thousand madarsa teachers in the coming years,” Sattar said.

The government’s decision last October to recognise madarsas as minority institutions is also a reason for setting up the new commission, Sattar said.

“Since madarsas have been labelled minority institutions, the school service commission will not recruit teachers for them according to provisions of the commission’s 1997 act. So we thought of setting up the madarsa commission,” the minister said.

The new commission will have five members, including the chairman.

According to the draft bill, the chairman should have “profound knowledge of Islamic culture’’ and must have 12 years’ experience as teacher of a university or principal of a college.

The chairman and the other commission members will hold office for four years.

The government wants to recruit about 1,000 madarsa teachers this year and around 4,000 in the next three years, said an official in the minority affairs department. There are about 10,000 madarsa teachers at present.

“The state has 506 madarsas and another 300 will come up in the next 15 months,” Sattar said.

Finance minister Asim Dasgupta has raised the outlay for the minority affairs department from Rs 180 crore to Rs 313 crore, while each government department has created a special fund for minority development and madarsa education.