Odisha Ex-Education Director Arrested for Textbook Errors, ₹175 Crore Loss
The Odisha Police’s Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested former State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Director Manoj Kumar Padhy in connection with a criminal conspiracy involving error-ridden school textbooks for Classes 1 to 8. The arrest comes after a high-level committee found serious lapses in the textbook preparation process.
According to the Crime Branch, Padhy, a senior Odisha Administrative Service officer, was responsible for the overall supervision, coordination, monitoring, and approval of the textbook development process under the National Education Policy 2020 during his tenure as SCERT Director. He allegedly failed to discharge his duties, knowingly approving print-ready manuscripts without ensuring verification of factual, scientific, geographical, and pictorial content.
“Such acts and omissions resulted in the publication and distribution of erroneous textbooks, causing wrongful loss to the State exchequer of approximately ₹175 crore and corresponding injury to public interest,” the Crime Branch stated. Padhy has been charged under Sections 316(5), 201, 61(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which pertain to criminal negligence and conspiracy.
Padhy is among four officers who were suspended after a committee headed by Development Commissioner D.K. Singh found lapses in the textbook preparation. Six other employees are facing disciplinary action. The government had acknowledged that the textbooks contained 1,678 mistakes, including grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and factual inaccuracies.
