Summary Bihar's chief minister, Nitish Kumar's office, in a press release, has stated that an inquiry had been initiated after the picture of the Pakistani girl was discovered. Photo: IRC
(Web Desk) – India’s Jamui district mistakenly used a Pakistani school girl’s photograph on the cover page of a booklet on a cleanliness initiative.
Bihar’s chief minister, Nitish Kumar’s office, in a press release, has stated that an inquiry had been initiated after the picture of the Pakistani girl was discovered, reported Hindustan Times.
The booklet on cleanliness was distributed among students by the Jamui district water and cleanliness committee (DWCC). Governement officials have blamed the printing press for selecting the photograph.
Chairman of DWCC, Dharmendra Kumar, said that the remaining booklets will be distributed after the picture has been removed from the cover pages.
The photograph on left was used as cover for the booklet. Photo: Hindustan Times
Kumar added that following an inquiry into the incident, it was found that UNICEF had used the picture of the girl for one of their education promotion programmes in Pakistan.
“We selected the picture from Unicef website, as it looked impressive. We did not notice that the girl was from Pakistan and drawing a Pakistani flag,” he said.
According to one of the senior officials of the district, around 4000 booklets were printed.
While the government is blaming the printing company based in Patna, the company said the photo was approved by DWCC, reported HT.
Niranjan Chawdhary, an official of the district rural development organisation, said that authorities were clueless about how the printer chose to feature the Pakistani girl on the front page.
