Maha govt sets-up committee to probe spelling mistakes

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Government on Wednesday set up a five-member committee to probe the spelling mistakes in the 10th class textbook `Kumarbharti', which led to the recall of 12 lakh copies of the textbook.

"Innumerable mistakes were found in the textbook which led to its cancellation," an official release said.

"This has caused a major financial loss to the state government, which has faced criticism on the issue," the release said.

"It is seen that there was irresponsibility and dereliction in carrying out the job of printing the textbook," it said.
   
The committee will be headed by former principal secretary, Pratima Umarji.

The state board for secondary and higher secondary eduaction ordered re-print of 12 lakh Class X Marathi books after the earlier batch of copies were found to be full of spelling mistakes.

Vasant Kalpande, Director, Maharashtra State Textbook Production and Curriculum Research (Balbharati), which produced the 12 lakh textbooks, had recently admitted that because of orthographic errors, fresh printing order was issued.

Each book cost Rs 28. Balbharati distributes it on a no-profit basis, so the loss from the 12 lakh copies sent to various depots across the state is over Rs 3 crore.