Photo of Pakistani girl drawing her country’s flag printed on notebook covers in Bihar; probe ordered

PATNA: The photograph of a Pakistani schoolgirl drawing a map of her country’s flag was printed on the covers of notebooks brought out by the district administration of Bihar’s Jamui district to promote Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

After the embarrassing goof-up came to light on Friday, officials manning the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign in the southern district were found engaging in a blame game. Jamui district magistrate (DM) Dharmendra Kumar ordered a probe to ascertain how the photograph came to be printed on about 5,000 notebooks that were distributed among schoolchildren in December last.

The photograph shows a smiling girl of about five sitting in a chair and drawing a flag of Pakistan on a lined notebook page. It was the photo originally used by UNICEF in Pakistan to spread awareness about the importance of educating girls, said the officials.

Sources said the notebooks were still being used by children at several schools in Jamui district. Along with the notebooks, the district administration had also got 5,000 “cleanliness keybooks” printed and distributed among the schoolchildren.

The decision to print the notebooks and the key books to promote the ‘Swachh Bharat’ programme was taken by the ten-member District Water and Cleanliness Committee (DWCC), said sources. A Patna-based printing press, Suprav Enterprises, had printed them, they added.

“It is a grave error, and it was not spotted earlier. The proposal to print the notebooks was approved by then district magistrate Dr Kaushal Kishore,” said Sudhir Kumar, the district coordinator of ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign.

Ram Niranjan Chaudhary, a member of DWCC, said: “The committee had ordered the printing of the notebooks and cleanliness key books. We had not asked the printer to put a photo of a Pakistani girl with a Pakistani flag on the covers”.

But Shailesh Kumar, the proprietor of Suprav Enterprises, said there was prior approval from the district administration for putting the controversial photograph on the notebook covers.

“The matter is being looked into. Suitable action would be taken against those responsible for this incident. Efforts are on to withdraw the notebooks from the schoolchildren,” said Jamui DM Dharmendra Kumar.