pune areas having a minimum of 200 urduspeaking population can now have urdumedium schools provided at least 30 students from such pockets are willing to study in each school a statement issued by the state education department said the government has recently given a goahead to local selfgovernment bodies like zilla parishads municipal corporations municipal councils and cantonment boards in the state to open urdumedium schools as per the requirement the foremost condition laid down by the government to open urdu schools is that they would have to comply with all necessary norms stipulated in the right to education act local selfgovernment bodies can send their proposal to claim compensation for the firstyear of starting urdumedium schools through the state directorate of primary education it has to be tabled before the forthcoming session of the state legislature the statement said it also states that some areas dominated by urduspeaking population in the state have lesser number of urdu schools than desired as per figures supplied by the state government maharashtra has 103 lakh primary and secondary schools it includes around 4785 urdumedium 9130 englishmedium and 87120 marathimedium schools the governments decision to allow local selfgovernment bodies to open urdumedium schools has come in the wake of last months move to clear a rs 10crore package for 200 of the 1889 madarsas in the state