Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil today apologised in the Legislative Council for his remarks against the Opposition after the latter, on Friday, raised the issue of some state Class 6 Geography textbooks having six of their pages printed in Gujarati.
NCP MLC Sunil Tatkare had raised the issue in the Council on Friday and Patil had claimed that the error could have been the result of a "binding mistake" or there was a possibility that somebody inserted these pages in a few books on purpose.
Tatkare, terming the allegation against the opposition a serious one, had said, "If you could prove that I printed this, I will drink poison here and commit suicide."
Speaking in the Council today, Maharashtra School Education Minister Vinod Tawde said that around 11.50 lakh copies of the Class 6 Geography textbook in Marathi were printed of which about one lakh copies were published by Shlok Print City, a firm based in Ahmedabad in neighbouring Gujarat.
Tawde said there was a possibility the pages in Gujarati were erroneously printed and added that the Ahmedabad-based firm had been told to furnish an explanation.
He also informed the House that divisional education offices had been directed to replace the books in question immediately.
Tawde said that Pune-based Balbharati, a state-run organisation, prints 12 crore books in eight languages every year.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister and Leader of House Chandrakant Patil apologised today after the issue was raised by the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Dhananjay Munde.
Munde had demanded the apology while the first report of the Marathi Language Committee was being tabled in the House today.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)