Overview
- The Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan has called a 12‑hour statewide bandh on Wednesday from 6am to 6pm to press for the resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond.
- The group says it has found more than 1,700 errors in government textbooks, citing specific mistakes such as placing the Niyamgiri Hills in Jharkhand, publishing a picture of the Karnataka assembly instead of Odisha’s, and describing Isaac Newton as a pilot.
- NNKS has used sustained tactics to escalate the campaign, running a relay hunger strike since August 20 and with national coordinator Akshay Kumar on an individual hunger strike in Bhubaneswar since September 6.
- Authorities have sought to limit disruption by saying examinations will not be postponed, while police in Bhubaneswar deployed around 10 platoons and 15 officers and asked government staff to report to work as usual.
- The protest has drawn support from CPI(M) and the Republican Party of India, and the Congress-led INDIA bloc has planned a separate statewide bandh on October 8 that links the textbook issue to demands over a mining law and the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner.