Mumbai, April 26: This year's newly-published SSC textbooks in Maharashtra have depicted a large portion of the border state Jammu and Kashmir out of the country, besides carrying a faulty picture of the national tricolour, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said here on Thursday.
In a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, he demanded a probe and immediate arrest of those found guilty of this grave faux pas in the Class 10 Geography textbook.
Vikhe-Patil pointed out that these serious errors have come up in the textbooks recently published by the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production & Curriculum Research for the academic year starting 2018.
"In chapter 3, page 24, a map of India is published but it is very erroneous as a large part of Jammu & Kashmir is not shown within the borders of the country," he said in the letter.
Similarly, in chapter 2, page 9, the national flag has been published in which the colour of the Ashoka Chakra is wrong.
He said the textbook had been kept for review in a seminar in Pune sometime ago when former school Principal K.U. Sonawane and others raised serious objections, both oral and written, to make the necessary corrections.
"However, the required changes were not made and the textbooks carry the wrong images of India and the national tricolour, besides many other mistakes which have crept into the book," Vikhe-Patil said.
Seeking complaints against the persons concerned and their immediate arrest, he demanded that after consulting experts, all the mistakes must be corrected and a revised version should be made available for the students from the next academic year.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
