Bhubaneswar: A day after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered a detailed probe into printing errors in SCERT Odisha textbooks for Classes I to VIII, the State Government on Thursday constituted an inquiry committee.

According to an official notification, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh has been appointed as the chairman of the committee. Secretary of the Odia Language, Literature and Culture Department Bijay Ketan Upadhyay and Deputy Secretary of the General Administration Department Smita Pani will serve as members.

The committee has been tasked with examining the nature and extent of the printing errors, identifying the level at which the lapses occurred, and fixing responsibility on the officials or agencies involved.

It has been directed to complete the inquiry within seven days and submit a comprehensive report to the government.

Notably, the errors in textbooks from Classes I to VIII have reportedly caused difficulties for students. Taking serious note of the issue, the Chief Minister reviewed the situation and instructed officials to rectify the mistakes at the earliest. He also directed strict action be taken against those found responsible for the lapses.

Large number of errors in textbooks

Reports indicate as many as 1,678 errors have been identified in the new textbooks for Classes I to VIII.

The highest number of errors of 705 was found in Class VIII textbooks. These include 294 mistakes in Jijnasa, 114 in Sanskrit, 25 in Social Science, and 31 in Literature, along with several significant errors in English and Mathematics.

In some glaring instances, a photograph of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly was incorrectly presented as the Odisha Legislative Assembly. The Niyamgiri Hills were wrongly shown as being located in Jharkhand, Ganjam district was referred to as Brahmapur district, and the names of noted Odia personalities such as Sunanda Patnaik and Pandit Nilakantha Das were misspelled.