Demo near Assembly over errors in textbooks

Bhubaneswar: Activists of the Opposition BJD and Navnirman Yuva Chhatra Sangathan (NYCS) demonstrated near the Odisha Assembly on Tuesday, demanding the resignation of Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond over alleged large-scale errors in school textbooks. Though both groups raised the same issue, they staged their demonstrations separately outside the Assembly on the first day of the monsoon session.

The BJD MLAs joined the agitation organised by the party’s youth and student wings, while a various number of organisations, including the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), extended support to the NYCS protest. BJD MLA Goutam Buddha Das claimed that more than 1,600 errors, including spelling mistakes and incorrect names of eminent personalities, had been found in 55 textbooks supplied by the State government.

“The government has spent Rs 380 crore on printing textbooks for schoolchildren, but they were found to have multiple mistakes. The government is playing with the future of school students,” he alleged. He said the minister should take responsibility for the errors and resign.

Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) president Chinmaya Sahu alleged that printing textbooks with “gross errors” in the name of implementing the National Education Policy amounted to a “national scam”.

Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD) president Ipsita Sahu alleged that nearly six months had passed since the start of the academic year and students were set to appear for their half-yearly examinations, but the government had failed to ensure the distribution of error-free textbooks. She also alleged that the minister was trying to “hoodwink” people by claiming that corrected textbooks had been printed and distributed.

NYCS members, who have been staging a “satyagraha” over the textbook issue for the past 34 days, clashed with police personnel while attempting to march towards the Assembly. When the protesters reached Lower PNG Road, police personnel deployed there stopped them, leading to a confrontation. Several NYCS leaders were

detained, officials said.