BSE to take action for portraying martyrs as ''terrorist''

Bhubaneswar, Jun 8 (UNI) The Orissa Board of Secondary Education (OBSC) is contemplating takeing action against reviewers,writers and the coordinators for portraying the freedom fighters and martyrs of the country as ''santrasvadi''(terrorist),School and Mass Education Minister Bishnu Charan Das told the State Assembly today.

Mr Das said the government had deleted the word 'terrorist'' from the chapter and informed it through advertisement to the parents, students and guardians as well as the general public of the state.

A necessary order in this regard has also been circulated by the BSE to all education circles in the state,the Minister said.

Making a statement in this regard, Mr Das said the Social Science text book for class X published by the OBSE describing the freedom fighters and the martyrs of the country as terrorist has come to the notice of the state government.

He said in April last, the state government had directed the OBSE to submit a detailed report on the issue and accordingly the OBSE had submitted its report to the government wherein it clarified that the text book was published after six review meeting by the experts and final approval by the Syllabus committee.

The Minister said after the mistake was noticed,the OBSE had convened a meeting of the writers and reviewers to discuss over the issue and as per their approval,the chapter on terrorist movement and the word ''santrasvadi'' were deleted in page 91 of the text book.

Mr Das further said the OBSE had made arrangement to make necessary correction in all the unsold book while steps had been taken to supply the corrected slip to the students through the respective education circle office to past on the chapter.

The Minister also promised that the word ''terrorist'' would be deleted in the printing of the next edition of the book.

In the chapter called ''santrasvadi andolon''( Terrorist Movement) the text book had portrayed Bhagat Singh,Chandra Sekhar Azad, Sukdev and Rajguru as ''terrorist'' who played key role in the freedom struggle movement of the country.The chapter also described the meaning of the terrorist as an act to create panic among the minds of the people and cited the attack on World Trade Centre, Indian Parliament and militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir as an act of terrorism.

UNI