Srinagar, Jul 04: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday ordered suspension of eight officials of School Education Department (SED) for procuring and approving two textbooks containing \u2018inappropriate\u2019 content for school children.<\/p>\n
According to the news agency\u2014Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Commissioner Secretary School Education Department, Ram Niwas Sharma in an order said that on the orders of LG Sinha eight officials of the department have been placed under suspension with immediate effect.<\/p>\n
Sharma in the order said that Samagra Shiksha got the Library Grant for procurement of \u2018Age Appropriate Books\u2019 for 18,328 Government Schools and 394 PM SHRI School and accordingly EOI was floated<\/p>\n
\u201cFor selection of Age Appropriate Books, 4 Sub Committees of Experts, Academicians from both Jammu and Kashmir Divisions were constituted for selection of Library Books,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
It also said that these sub committees are for Primary Classes Series (1), Upper Primary Classes Series (2),Secondary Classes Series (3) and Higher Secondary Classes Series (4).<\/p>\n
\u201cThese four Sub Committees selected 463 books submitted by 364 publishers. Out of these books, two books have been noticed on 03.07.2026 to have inappropriate content,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
The Commissioner Secretary further said, \u201cAccordingly, these books were withdrawn. These two books include \u2018Personalities and Legends of J&K\u2019, authored by Hilal Ahmad and Mr Santosh Meena, published by Oberoi Book Service, Jammu and \u2018Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir\u2019 authored by Dr Sushant Giri, published by Anurag Prakashan, Delhi.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been observed that 123 number of books at Serial-I were supplied to Jammu, Ramban and Udhampur Districts and 128 number of books mentioned at Serial-II were supplied to Jammu and Baramula Districts,\u201d reads the order.<\/p>\n
Sharma also said that it has come to the notice of the department that these books have highly inappropriate content, it is quite evident that there was serious negligence, dereliction of duty and lack of proper due diligence was carried out by the members of the Sub Committee Series-IV and Supervisory Officers while recommending such books which contained content related to separatism which has potential for creating law and order situations<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeping in view the above facts and circumstances of the matter, the members of the Sub Committee Series-IV appear to be responsible for such serious lapses and negligence of government servants,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, the officials and supervisory staff of the School Education Department in terms of Rule\u00a0 31(1)(a) Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification. Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956, are placed under suspension, with immediate effect,\u201d the government ordered.<\/p>\n
It also ordered that during the period of suspension, they shall remain attached with the administrative department of the School Education Department.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the government ordered the disengagement of Computer Assistant (Contractual) assisting the Coordinator Library, Samagra Shiksha with immediate effect from his contractual engagement.<\/p>\n
Keeping in view the seriousness of the matter and misconduct of these officials, the government appointed Ashwani Kumar, IAS, Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary, Power Development Department appointed as Inquiry Officer to conduct an enquiry into the matter.<\/p>\n
Besides, the government appointed Rohit Sharma, JKAS, Additional Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department as the Presenting Officer in the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Inquiry Officer shall submit his report to the Competent Authority within 30 days,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
The government also ordered ban and blacklisting of these authors and publishers in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, any printed material authored or published by them shall also be withdrawn from the Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,\u201d reads the order. (KNO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Srinagar, Jul 04: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday ordered suspension of eight officials of School Education Department (SED) for procuring and approving two textbooks containing \u2018inappropriate\u2019 content for school children. According to the news agency\u2014Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Commissioner Secretary School Education Department, Ram Niwas Sharma in an order said that on the orders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news","category-kt-front"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24350,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24348\/revisions\/24350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}