KOCHI: The high-level meeting convened by the Additional Chief Secretary K M Abraham to resolve the imbroglio related to textbook distribution in schools did not arrive at any final decision.
The meeting was convened in the light of the High Court’s direction to parties to submit an affidavit in a case filed by Manipal Technologies which was the successful bidder in a tender floated by the state for the printing of textbooks.
The meeting was attended by Manipal Technologies representatives and Kerala Books and Publishing Society (KBPS) managing director M G Rajamanickam.
Since they could not arrive at a conclusion, the government and Manipal Technologies will file separate affidavits in the High Court on Friday.
The Additional Chief Secretary is learnt to have asked the Manipal Technologies representatives to print the books at KBPS rates, to which the latter did not agree.
They demanded that they should be given 25% extra charges and also transportation costs.
However, the government did not agree to this. The government is learnt to have decided to hold talks with private presses that are ready to print textbooks at KBPS rates.
It is also learnt that KBPS has decided to stop the printing of black and white books for the time being.
Manipal Techologies had submitted before the High Court that KBPS has not been able to complete printing on time. Now the government has issued an ultimatum to KBPS to complete the printing by July.
Counsel for Manipal Technologies P Gopinath Menon submitted that it was learnt that KBPS had commenced printing on June 21 and till July 6, had completed the printing of only 14 lakh books.
Even assuming that KBPS continued to print the larger textbooks with the same output, the printing would not be complete even by the second week of August, the petitioner said.
