Thiruvananthapuram: Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb has washed his hands of the controversy over the delay in printing school textbooks and passed the blame to the printing and finance departments.
Mr Rabb told reporters here on Tuesday that one reason for the delay was that textbooks were printed in colour for the first time this year.
The KBPS did not have the capacity to print large quantities of colour textbooks daily, Mr Rabb said.
The printing of next year’s textbooks would begin early to complete the distribution before the school reopening.
It was alleged that the education department had deliberately hidden the file. However, it had issued orders to purchase paper and other materials for printing on November 11, 2014 itself, Mr Rabb said.
Steps had been taken to distribute portions of the textbooks downloaded from the internet in areas where there was a shortage.
The second volume of the textbooks would be distributed by November, he said.
