Bhubaneswar: On Wednesday, parts of Odisha experienced disruptions in daily activities as a 12-hour bandh was organized by a farmers’ rights organization, protesting against alleged widespread errors in textbooks used in government schools, according to officials.

Various shops, businesses, and educational institutions were closed across multiple locations in response to the bandh called by the Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS) and Nabanirman Yuva Chhatra Sangathan (NYCS).

In several districts, including Khordha, Bhadrak, Baleshwar, and Jagatsinghpur, protesters blocked roads and set tyres ablaze, affecting vehicular traffic. However, most government offices continued to operate normally, and train services remained largely unaffected.

Emergency services were exempt from the restrictions imposed by the bandh, which lasted from dawn to dusk.

Authorities increased security measures statewide to avert any potential incidents during the protest, officials reported.

The NNKS is demanding the resignation of Nityananda Gond, the School and Mass Education Minister, over the alleged inaccuracies in textbooks. Members of the group have been conducting a relay hunger strike since August 20 to highlight this concern.

Akshay Kumar, the national coordinator of NNKS, stated that the bandh was necessitated by the government’s failure to acknowledge responsibility for the textbook discrepancies.

Some identified errors included misidentifying Niyamgiri Hills as being in Jharkhand, mistakenly using an image of the Karnataka assembly instead of the Odisha assembly, and incorrectly referring to scientist Isaac Newton as a pilot in the educational materials.