The Hindu : New Delhi News : Textbook mafia active in Delhi, alleges BJP leader

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Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
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New Delhi

Textbook mafia active in Delhi, alleges BJP leader

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: BJP general secretary Vijay Goel on Tuesday charged that corruption in the Education Department of the Delhi Government was responsible for non-availability of textbooks to students. He said during the nearly 10-year rule of the Congress in Delhi, students had never received the textbooks on time.

However, Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely rubbished the claim stating that there was “no shortage” of SCERT books that are supplied by the Delhi Government to students of Class I to VIII.

Insisting that a “textbook mafia” was active in Delhi, Mr. Goel accused senior government functionaries of collusion in it. Due to this nexus, he said, textbooks are not made available to students in time. “This is an intentional fraud so that private publishers could amass crores of rupees by publishing fake textbooks,” he said.

Shortage of teachers

Mr. Goel said while the new academic year had begun in Delhi, teaching had not picked up due to shortage of teachers. Even the teachers who are available have been put on other non-teaching jobs. As such, around 9 lakh children were being deprived from education, he said, adding that conditions in government schools were also deplorable.

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