BENGALURU: The private printing company penalised by the state department of primary and secondary education for delaying supply of text books seven years ago, has now approached the state government to waive off the penalty amount.
Although officials of the Karnataka Textbook Society have raised objections to this request by the company, it is being considered at the higher level, said highly placed sources from state department of primary and secondary education.
During the academic year 2011-12, the Telangana-based printers, Brahma Teja Paper Products, was one of the companies which got the tender to print and supply textbooks for the state government and state board-affiliated private and aided schools, had delayed the supply of text books which caused inconvenience to lakhs of students in the state.
Viewing this issue seriously, the department penalised the company with `68 lakh as per the department guidelines. Sources from the department said, “Though there is an opinion from most officials saying that the penalty cannot be waived off, the file is under consideration at a higher level in the government.”
According to the information available, The Telangana-based Brahma Teja Paper Products have submitted a written request to the Principal Secretary and the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, requesting a waiver on the penalty.
The letter read: “Since our office and factory is located in a troublesome and highly sensitive area, we lost valuable productive time of nearly 25 days during the order period, (and) the workers did not turn up for work in the factory, and the factory was also closed.
Even the heavy rains in Karnataka had caused more delay which led to seven days’ delay in the stipulated delivery time. Two lorries met with accidents and breakdowns — one in Dharwad and another in Chikkod district which damaged 90% of the books. So we had to re-print the books and dispatch them.”
However, the company also expressed that it had become difficult for them to pay the bank loan interest due to the penalty imposed and also in supporting 40 workers employed with the company.
Claiming all these reasons, the company asked the government to consider this on humanitarian grounds and save the firm. Meanwhile, officials of Karnataka Text Book Society cited the case of another Bengaluru-based printer and supplier who was penalised over previous year’s (2010-11) textbooks.
“In March 2018, the state government took a decision to waive off the penalty on another Bengaluru-based printer who supplied books for the previous academic year. This was done because there was shortage of paper and delay in providing content to be printed for the textbooks,” said an official source.