NCERT asked to remove sentence from geography book

NCERT has been asked by the Union Tourism ministry to remove a line from the class tenth geography textbook which stated that tourism has not been encouraged in north-eastern states and interior parts of the Himalayas due to "strategic reasons".

This was done following a Guwahati school student Kavya Barnadhya Hazarika's query to the Prime Minister and President's secretariat to clarify what the "strategic reasons" were.

Union Tourism Secretary Pervez Dewan had earlier replied that despite the efforts of Ministry of Tourism and State governments in the region, "it was unfortunate that a careless statement makes a sweeping statement that is totally inaccurate."

The student had again requested Dewan yesterday through e-mail to ask NCERT authorities to remove the sentence.

Dewan, in a reply to the e-mail today, said that he has asked NCERT to remove the "careless sentence".

NCERT geography class tenth textbook in page 92, chapter 7 titled 'Lifelines of National Economy', mentions "there is vast potential of tourism development in the north-eastern states and the interior parts of Himalayas, but due to strategic reasons these have not been encouraged so far".

On reading this, Hazarika, a class eleventh student of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School at Silpukhuri here wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and also twice petitioned the President's Secretariat helpline since April first week to get an answer to his query about what those "strategic reasons" are.