Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has demanded a comprehensive investigation into the alleged corruption in the government decision to handover printing of school textbooks to a private printing press.
In a statement here on Tuesday, Mr. Balakrishnan also sought urgent measures to make textbooks available to the students. The government had entrusted printing of 60 lakh textbooks with its own presses.
However, no step was taken to make necessary material available on time.
Printing in the government presses was suspended later to facilitate the handover of printing to private presses. Despite this, the government presses were able to print as many as 11 lakh textbooks. The printing order has been given to a private press for six times the cost at which the books could have been printed by the Kerala Books and Publications Society (KBPS). All this clearly showed that the government presses were discouraged from completing their work on time to give the work order to the private sector, the CPI(M) leader alleged.
Mr. Balakrishnan said there was also the allegation that the tender process lacked transparency.
As a result, one of the bidding presses has approached the Kerala High Court. Going by present trends, the textbooks will not be ready anytime soon.
The alleged corruption in the printing of school textbooks has come on top of similar allegations about printing of Plus One and Plus Two textbooks.
All this showed how inept the government’s handling of the education sector has been, the CPI(M) leader added.
