Bhubaneswar: Leader of the Opposition in the Odisha Assembly and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Monday demanded the resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond, holding him accountable for the large number of errors found in newly published school textbooks.
Addressing the media, Patnaik said the minister should step down over the controversy and follow the example of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. “School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond should resign. There have been a number of mistakes in the textbooks for students in our state. He should follow the example of Dharmendra Pradhan and resign from the post. This is what the BJD has been demanding for the last two to three weeks,” Patnaik said.
The demand comes amid a major controversy over errors in school textbooks published for Classes I to VIII. More than 1,600 mistakes have reportedly been identified in the books, triggering sharp criticism from Opposition parties, educationists and other stakeholders.
The issue has raised serious concerns over the quality of educational material being supplied to students across Odisha. The Odisha Crime Branch is currently investigating the matter.
On July 25, Pradhan resigned from his post following mounting pressure over the NEET paper leak and examination irregularities. His resignation came after protests by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and students at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, where demonstrators demanded accountability and called for the Union Education Minister to step down over the controversy.
Reacting to Patnaik’s demand, the BJP hit back at the former Chief Minister. BJP general secretary Biranchi Narayan Tripathy accused the BJD president of adopting double standards on issues related to education.
Tripathy alleged that question paper leaks had occurred several times during the BJD government. He claimed that the Naveen Patnaik-led government had merely suspended ministers to protect its image instead of taking concrete steps to permanently address the problem. Defending Dharmendra Pradhan, the BJP leader said the Union minister had resigned on moral grounds. He added that the entire BJP and the NDA stand firmly behind Pradhan.