Bhubaneswar: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Monday extended support to the ongoing students’ agitation in Odisha over errors in school textbooks, backing the Navnirman Yuva Chhatra Sangathan’s (NYCS) demand for accountability and the resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond.
The NYCS and Opposition BJD have announced plans to gherao the Assembly on Tuesday over the issue, while the BJD and Congress have said they will raise the matter during the House proceedings.
CJP co-convenor Sourav Das, who visited the NYCS protest site as part of the party’s ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign, said the party supported the students’ demand for reforms in school education. He alleged that despite spending Rs 380 crore on printing textbooks, several errors were detected and said responsibility should be fixed.
Das also urged students and youths to join the proposed peaceful Assembly gherao and questioned why Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Gond had not met the protesters. He said he was in Odisha at the invitation of Navnirman Krushak Sangathan convenor Akshaya Kumar and NYCS leader Manwar Ali, who have been on hunger strike for more than two weeks.
The NYCS has said it adopted Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent ‘satyagraha’ to press for reforms, transparency and accountability in the education sector.
Meanwhile, the state government has begun distributing corrected editions of textbooks ahead of the Assembly session. Around 45,000 books were distributed on the first day in Bhubaneswar, Kataka, Jatani, Salepur and Nischintakoili. The distribution covers Odia textbooks for Classes II to VI and Urdu textbooks for Classes VI to VIII.
Officials said at least 1,678 errors had been identified in 55 textbooks for Classes I to VIII. The mistakes included identifying scientist Isaac Newton as the “greatest pilot”, placing the Niyamgiri Hills in Jharkhand, and carrying a photograph of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly while identifying it as the Odisha Assembly. Ganjam was also described as Berhampur district in one instance, while the sequence introducing the Odia alphabet was found to be incorrect.
Rejecting the CJP’s allegations, Odisha BJP spokesperson Anil Biswal termed the party a “B-Team” of the Congress and AAP and alleged that its criticism of the state government was politically motivated.
