VIJAYAWADA: School textbooks in Andhra Pradesh would cost more than that of those in Telangana from the next academic year, said AP Publishers and Printers’ Association treasurer GS Chakravarthi.
Chakravarthi on Thursday that the AP government is intentionally opting traditional tender system and working accordingly to benefit a set of five publishers. The page bid by Telangana publishers is just 26 paise, whereas it is over 31 paise in AP (30 per cent more).
“Unlike TS, AP has included few critical clauses, which would affect 90 per cent publishers and restrict their participation in the tender. The whole process is to benefit the five publishers who print novels and story books, and formed a syndicate to get the tender,” he alleged.
The association demanded that the AP government go for online tenders to print the school textbooks, which are to be sold in private schools. It mainly opposed the clause 4(xi), which states that tenderers who publish other study material and publishers attached or associated with the tenderer are not valid to bid.
The association also demanded removal of minimum turnover of Rs 5 crore as an eligibility criteria.