THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Education Department will take a final call on assigning private presses to print textbooks on Monday, Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb has said.
The minister’s statement comes amid allegations of a foul play by the department to award the work to private presses by deliberately delaying the printing at the Kerala Books and Publications Society (KBPS) and government presses.
The department has failed to provide textbooks to lakhs of students even as a week has passed since the start of the new academic year. The Education Department has clarified that an alternative option is being pursued as the KBPS and the government presses have conveyed that they cannot complete the works this month.It is alleged that there was an indordinate departmental delay in providing the printing materials to the KBPS and government presses. The Kerala Books and Publications Society was given materials on February 10 and was asked to print 2.32 crore books.The unit has printed 1.62 crore books so far. Printing materials were provided to the government presses only on May 21. They delivered six lakh books against a demand for 60 lakh. Though KBPS conveyed that it could print the rest, the department, allegedly, wants to assign the work to some private presses