GoI asks educational institutions not to tamper with map of India

JAMMU — The Government of India (GoI) has asked all the educational institutions across the country not to tamper with the map of India and publish it in conformity with the Survey of India.

The government has termed tempering the map as a punishable offence and whoever does it, will be punished with imprisonment which will extend up to six months or with a fine, or both.

In an order issued by the Ministry of Education, GoI, it has been ordered, “Whosoever publishes a map of India, which is not in conformity with the maps of India as published by Survey of India (SoI), shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.”

“The Higher Educational institutions are requested to ensure compliance with the aforementioned law,” the order reads.

The Survey of India publishes the map of India as per the guidelines issued by the GoI. All up-to-date information on SoI maps shall be available at the various offices, map sales counters and Geospatial Data Centres (GDC) under the SoI.

The information provided by SoI among other things includes all relevant details of maps such as scale, information content, date of data capture, price, mode of data dissemination, whether Ministry of Defence clearance is available for issue as Open Series Map (OSM) etc.

At present, India has 28 states and eight union territories and each of them has its own identity, history and administrative setup. According to the GoI, both Pakistani-occupied Kashmir (POK) and Aksai Chin are part of India and they are under illegal occupation by Pakistan and China, respectively.

As per the recent order, the higher education institutions have been asked to ensure compliance with this law.