Thiruvananthapuram: The officials are unsure of the date when the students would finally get the textbooks as indicated by their contradicting statements.
Nearly 43 lakh textbooks are yet to be distributed one month after the school reopening. Kerala Book Publishing Society (KBPS) Managing Director M.G. Rajamanickam said that the textbooks would reach the schools only by August.
He also came out against the general education department for the delay in printing claiming that the order for printing the remaining textbooks was issued to the KBPS only 10 days ago.
However, Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb said that he had got an assurance from Printing Secretary Raju Narayana Swamy that the printing would be completed by July 20.
Mr Rabb told DC that Mr Rajamanickam had not attended any textbook review meetings convened by the government. It was Mr Swamy who attended such meetings. Hence the only opinion before the government was that of the printing secretary, Mr Rabb said.
A total of 1, 15,26,289 books were to be distributed to schools before the school reopening in June. However, at the time of reopening around 65 lakh textbooks remained to be printed.
Following this, three government presses at Mannanthala, Shoranur and Vazhoor were also pressed into service. However, they informed the government that they could not keep the deadline. This forced the government to go for open tender.
Only one printing press submitted the tender. A decision was taken not to award work to the private press as it was the sole bidder.
The KBPS which was again tasked with printing the remaining 43 lakh textbooks has already completed the printing of 13 lakh copies.
