Graft In Books Purchase For Periyar World Exposed

Chennai: Accusing the DMK of being a veritable fountainhead of corruption, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said large scale graft in the purchase of books for the library in the recently opened Periyar Arivulgam (Knowledge World) in Coimbatore had been exposed by writer Perumal Murugan, who was part of the committee to recommend books on modern literatures and critical works, forcing DMK leaders to hang their heads in shame.

Opening a can of worms, Perumal Murugan in an article alleged that books that normally priced around Rs 350 were bought for Rs 1,445 and that around 1,800 books were sourced from and unverified or unknown publishing house called ‘Agalvilakku Pathipagam,’ besides some other publishing house called Phoenix Pathipagam.

He also pointed out fundamental factual and historic errors in the books purchased for the library like misidentifying the classical collection Naladiyar as a single poet and embedding incomplete AI-generated text with incorrect references.

Alleging a multi-crore scam, Perumal Murugan had said that the high-quality works recommended by the committee, in which he was a member, were not procured leading to sub-standard or fraudulent titles ending up in the library shelves. He also wanted the setting up of an investigation committee to go into the scam and the removal of the questionable books from the library.

With State Minister for School Education Rajmohan highlighting the alleged ‘mega corruption’ in the procurement of books for library at a meeting, the issue caught the attention of many politicians, across party lines, who put up messages accusing the DMK. Former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundrarajan wondered if the DMK that had been claiming to have done everything for setting up the Knowledge World would also own up the now exposed irregularities.

PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss wanted a committee to be appointed to investigate the scam and a probe by the DVAC, the CPI State secretary M Veerapandian wanted a probe with the CPM State secretary P Shanmugam asking for the setting up of a Special investigation Team. Makkal Needhi Maiyam founder Kamal Haasan said that there could be no bigger shame for Tamil.

The DMK’s IT Wing said the TVK government had the responsibility to come out with the details as it had claimed that its leaders had done the review relating to the knowledge centre ahead of its opening on October 16. It even claimed that the orders for a publishing house were issued after the TVK took charge.

But some of the charges that had come out in the scandal are unusual. One of them is that books written by an author called Trisha Vijay were adorning the shelves of the library, giving rise to the doubt about the genuineness of the books and their authors. Buying books generated by artificial intelligence, containing false information, was the biggest fraud in the history of books, Naam Tamilar Katchi chief coordinator Seeman said.