BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday ordered an investigation by the Crime Branch of Police into the lapses leading to massive errors in school textbooks, covering the entire process from preparation, editing to publication of the books for classes I to VIII.
Majhi ordered the director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to lodge a first information report (FIR) with the SP, Crime Branch to facilitate an independent investigation into the matter.
Sources said that the decision for a Crime Branch probe was taken following mounting criticism of the government over its routine administrative approach to a serious issue of glaring textbooks errors.
The CB investigation will examine the entire chain of events leading to the publication of the flawed books and identify those responsible.
The government had constituted the three-member committee, headed by the development commissioner, after a staggering 1,678 factual, typographical and printing errors were detected in the textbooks across subjects.
Based on the committee’s findings, the government had late last month suspended the then SCERT director along with three assistant directors.
It also initiated disciplinary proceedings against six other assistant directors for alleged negligence and failure in supervision during the textbook preparation process.
Officials said the Crime Branch inquiry would determine whether there was deliberate misconduct, gross negligence, manipulation or violation of established procedures in the preparation, vetting, printing and distribution of the textbooks.