The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Students hit as textbook scarcity continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 04, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Students hit as textbook scarcity continues

By A. A. Michael Raj

COIMBATORE, JULY 3. T hough it is a fortnight since schools reopened, several students are frustrated and worried about not being able to purchase textbooks for various subjects.

Students and parents who approached licensed textbook dealers in the city during the past few days, have been told that the books are not available, and might be in stock at the sales emporium of the Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation. Many of the students who expected that their schools would supply the books, have also been disappointed.

"This year, there is a scarcity of English medium textbooks for Classes VIII, IX, X and XI. For Class XII, there is heavy demand for accounts, commerce and economics textbooks, both in English and Tamil," the Deputy Secretary of the Coimbatore Book Sellers and Publishers Association, A. Kaliappan, said.

"In Coimbatore, there are about 150 licensed textbook dealers and about 50 to 60 of them regularly obtain and sell Government textbooks every year, in Coimbatore, Pollachi and Udumalpet. However, the scarcity of textbooks is very severe this year. A few days ago, about 60 dealers were offered two books each, to sell to students," he added.

However, such temporary measures were insufficient to meet the huge demand from students, and the licensed dealers faced difficulties in explaining to their customers why the books were not in stock, or even give a date when the books would be available.

"If they give all the textbooks through schools, or make the required number available through the sales emporium, then the licensed dealers can pass on this information to customers. However, when there is all-round scarcity, we do not know what to do, or what to tell customers," he observed.

On June 16, the association had taken a joint decision to temporarily refrain from stocking or selling Government textbooks, until the Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation made available to the booksellers, the entire quota that they had sought. Unfortunately, even this move had not helped improve distribution, for the shortage continued unabated.

In the resolution passed at the meeting, the association had said that the decision to refrain from stocking the books had been taken in protest against "several anomalies" in the distribution of textbooks to retailers, since May 27.

Kaliappan said that the textbooks were unlikely to be pirated, because any such duplication would not be remunerative. The books could not be produced at the low rates at which the Government made them available.

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