Notice to publisher for error in national anthem book in UP

The notice has been served to the three officials by the Textbook officer of the UP Basic Education department, Shyam Kishore Tiwari.

Prayagraj: Notices have also been served to the basic shiksha adhikari (BSA) of Mathura, Deewan Singh Yadav and divisional education assistant director, basic, Agra, Mahesh Chandra-both of whom were responsible for checking the book for any printing errors before they were distributed to students.

The notice has been served to the three officials by the Textbook officer of the UP Basic Education department, Shyam Kishore Tiwari.

The action follows reports of the missing words-Utkal and Banga– in the national anthem in the Hindi textbook ‘Vatika 5’, for Class 5 of government-run primary schools of the state, which were distributed in Kaushambhi.

BSA, Kaushambhi, Prakash Singh, has also issued a show-cause notice to the publisher who has been asked to replace all copies of the book which have the anomaly.

“After the books were distributed to students, it was found that two words were missing from the national anthem. The mistake committed by the printer is very serious in nature. The publisher had printed around 2.5 lakh copies of this book (Vatika 5) out of which the mistake in omission of two words in the national anthem has been reported in around 1 lakh copies,” said Tiwari.

The officer has also asked BSAs of 10 districts of the state, students of which have been provided with the same Hindi textbook published by this Mathura-based printer for Class 5 students, to check the textbooks.

These districts include Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Sonbhadra, Shamli, Kaushambhi, Banda and Chitrakoot, officials said.

The BSA, Kaushambhi said: “The matter was brought to my notice on Saturday and on the same day I had informed my seniors besides serving the notice on the printer. We have recalled all the Hindi textbooks which had this mistake and the publisher has been asked to replace all the books this week itself.”

BSA of Chitrakoot Luv Prakash Yadav, had also spotted the mistake in the Hindi text books provided to the students of primary schools of his district.