Chapter on Ahmedabad Metro part of std 7 textbook in Gujarat

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BJP government in Gujarat has introduced a chapter on Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Metro project in the standard 7th English textbook for Gujarati medium schools.
Opposition Congress termed it "an exercise of self-projection with wrong facts".
"Gujarat is a progressive state. Ahmedabad is the largest city....Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat. About 50,000 people everyday travel between these two capitals-old and new. So we need good transport facility," reads the chapter titled 'Mega Ride'.
"The Government...Started a Rs two thousand crore company for that project. The name of the company is MEGA," it says.
"The trains will run without drivers. But you need not worry. Technology will take care of your safety," it adds, talking about the technological features.

The government said that objective was to make the feel children proud of the high-quality planning and technological excellence involved as Metro rail was one of the best examples of the progressive image of Gujarat.

"The new textbooks are made in the line with the NCF (National Curriculum Frame-work) recommendation," reads a reply sent by education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma through president of textbook board Nitin Pethani.
"One of the fundamental principles of it is to provide learning tasks that are based on real life situations of the learners. This can happen best when wee take 'authentic' material from real -life situation in contemporary context."

Congress leader Manish Doshi however said the government wanted to spoil the education by presenting wrong facts.
"Earlier the BJP government was telling lies and putting wrong facts before the voters, but now they have even started putting wrong facts before the children for self-projection and (projecting) fake achievements as the Metro project has not even seen the daylight," Doshi said.