Row over plan to buy books for SC/ST girls
Neeta Kolhatkar / DNA
Monday, February 1, 2010 3:04 IST
Mumbai: A controversy surrounds a proposal worth Rs13,54,50,000 to
purchase books for girl students belonging to the schedule caste and
tribes in primary section passed by the primary education department.
According to rules, the department has to put out a tender calling for
bids from government and private publishers. However, the first phase
of this proposal was carried out without informing any party. Four
Marathi publishers — Mouj, Majestic, Jyotsna and Lok Vangmay —
independently filed for queries under the Right to Information Act
(RTI), in which the official has admitted to lapses.
"We asked for the names of the people in the selection committee but
got no reply," said Mukund Bhagwat, Mouj publishers. "The RTI reply
says that the executive committee took the decision to purchase books
on December 21, 2009."
The publishers said that they wanted to ascertain the criteria used to
select books. "Even if the students are from schedule castes and
tribes, the government needs to have parameters for selecting themes
and books," said Vikas Paranjpe of Jyotsna publishers.
In his reply, the officer for government proposals department said,
"Under the proposal head for the new education programme, the
government is required to buy books and for this no advertisement was
put in any newspaper."
According to the publishers, many of the subjects seem redundant.
"There are books on radio repair, not to take dowry, it must be a son,
child bride, Indian music and its science and also on the management
of education. It reflects that the government has taken no effort to
select good quality books for children," said Paranjpe.
However, the government said that there are more books to be purchased
and they will follow the tender process. The secretary of primary
education said that there is a S branch which approves the list of
books every year.
"We will be putting an advertisement and calling for tenders when
these publishers can apply. We cannot keep everyone satisfied and it
seems they are upset because they may have been overlooked," said
Sanjay Kumar, secretary school education department.
This weekend there is a Bal Kumar Sahitya Sammelan in Sangam Nair,
where the members will pass a resolution asking the government to
scrap this project. The All India Marathi Publishers Association has
also sent a letter of protest to the education department.
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