IMPHAL, May 14: Amidst intense controversy over the territorial boundaries of North East India, the New Delhi based Oxford University Press (OUP) has wrongly marked the “Manipur Hills” as “Naga Hills” in its 32nd edition of the school atlas released this year.
The said edition of the school atlas has been banned completely by the Manipuri Students’ Federation (MSF) and it has sought rectification from the publisher.
Speaking to media-persons at the head office of MSF, president Md. Attabuddin stated that the error which appears in the school atlas of OUP regarding the boundaries of Manipur is quite misleading to the young students and hence the federation has taken up the extreme action of banning the said book in the state.
He further said that it is quite unfortunate for a reputed book publisher of India to wrongly mark the boundaries of the North East, but there is no such error in the popular atlas titled “ Concise Atlas of the World” published by Dorling Kindersley (DK) of United Kingdom.
The 32nd edition of Oxford School Atlas is completely banned in the state and all available copies of the book will be collected and burned down, the president declared.
Further, the MSF has sent a letter to the publisher of OUP, New Delhi, demanding an apology as well as rectification for the error that has appeared in its 32nd edition of the school atlas.