The J&K administration has ordered the deletion of the word “State” from the name of Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education Act 1975.
The move comes more than a year after the government of India abrogated Article 370 from the Constitution of India and reduced J&K to a Union Territory.
As per the order issued by deputy secretary administration in JKBOSE, the decision to delete “State” from JK Board of School Education Act has been taken in pursuance of S.O. 3465(E) dated 15-10-2020, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh affairs).
“It is hereby ordered for the information and compliance of all the officers, sub-offices and branch heads of the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education that hence forth all their official communications and correspondences shall be made under the title of The Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education instead of the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education, thus deleting the word “State” from its name,” the order reads.
The order further states that severe action will be taken against the defaulters in case of any violation or non-compliance is detected in this regard.
The deputy secretary and assistant secretary of administration division of JKBOSE in Jammu and Kashmir division has been entrusted to disseminate the information in all sections, sub offices and branch heads.
Besides, the official communication the “State” word will be deleted from the textbooks as well as other books published and prescribed by the Board.
An official said, the amendments in JKBOSE Act were already made by the government in October or November.
“But still this State word was visible in textbooks and offices had not changed the stamps of the offices where the State word was still used despite the amendments made in the Act months ago. So we decided to issue an order to make these changes in line with the amendments made in the Act,” the Board official said.
He said the”State” word will be seen in textbooks already printed by the Board but will not be used in new textbooks printed for the new academic session.
“We have to act as per the government directions and the amendments made in the JKBOSE Act,” the official said.