The May 2012 issue of 'Puzzle Magic' magazine distributed to all the schools of the state contained four pages of lewd jokes, Gujarat Minister of State for Education Raman Vora said.
"The magazine is distributed in the schools under the 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' to develop reading habits of children, to improve their general knowledge and to increase interest in subjects like science and math," he said.
The state Education Department had given the work order for the magazine to Amisha Printers and Publishers, he said adding that the printer had sub-contracted the work to Golibar Publications, which had printed and supplied the magazine to all the schools.
The government has issued a notice to the firm for distributing the magazine without the state government's clearance.
"The magazine was supplied violating the contract of work order, which said that the publishers will get the content of the magazine passed by the 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan' officials. They did not do that and posted the magazine on May 19 to all the schools," he said.
"When we came to know about it, we ordered to get back all the copies, cancelled the work order of the publisher and blacklisted them," he added.
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Meanwhile, the opposition Congress slammed the government and demanded immediate action against those responsible for the incident.
"Such a magazine will have a deep impact on the minds of children as it contained jokes which cannot be published (even) in 'C' grade magazines," Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi claimed. (More)