Bhubaneswar, Sept 29: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has sought a response from the Odisha government over allegations related to the printing and distribution of error-filled school textbooks in the state.
Following a communication from the PMO, the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Union Education Ministry has sought a reply from Odisha’s School and Mass Education Department.
The PMO action followed a complaint by RTI activist Pradip Pradhan, who alleged a multi-crore scam in the printing and distribution of the textbooks.
Pradhan has also alleged that a deputy director-rank official of the government press has been involved in the textbook printing process since 2022, despite being from the Commerce Department. He further alleged that printing and supply contracts were routed through a private agency linked to the official’s wife, raising questions of conflict of interest.
These are allegations made in the complaint and would require investigation to establish whether any wrongdoing took place.
The development comes amid the wider controversy over errors in Odisha’s school textbooks. A state inquiry found 1,731 errors in textbooks for Classes I to VIII, including factual, spelling and printing mistakes.
