Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Tuesday announced a statewide agitation demanding the resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond over alleged large-scale errors in government school textbooks. Announcing the protest programme at Congress Bhavan here, AICC Odisha in-charge Lalji Desai said Congress leaders and workers would stage demonstrations across the state, seeking the minister’s resignation and comprehensive reforms in the education sector. Expressing concern over the reported mistakes in school textbooks, Desai said children should not be forced to protest over issues affecting their education. He claimed that the 1,678 errors detected in school textbooks were too serious to be dismissed as routine mistakes. Das questioned why the state education minister should not resign over what he described as “unpardonable mistakes” in school textbooks, arguing that if a Union education minister could resign for negligence, the same standard should apply to the state minister.