Even as reports of an alleged shortage of textbooks of class 8, 9 and 10 pour in, the Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks authorities has said that there is no dearth of textbooks.
Even as reports of an alleged shortage of textbooks of class 8, 9 and 10 pour in, the Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks
(GSBST) authorities has said that there is no dearth of textbooks.
They have thrown a challenge all and sundry to prove that there is a shortage of text books. According to GSBST officials retailers and distributors have enough supply of these textbooks and the shortage is just a rumour. The booksellers on their part also back the GSBST's claims that there is no shortage.
Bipinchandra Makwana, a book retailer in Vejalpur area said,
"Textbooks are available but sometimes the supply is delayed. We are not getting good margins over the sale of textbooks but we are selling it to cater our regular customers." He said textbooks of all classes were more or less available.
Describing the supply chain of textbooks, a wholesale distributor in Ahmedabad said on condition of anonymity said there is always a surplus supply of textbooks from the GSBST.
"We always get more books than the number of students. For instance, if there are 10 lakh students in class 9 this year, which is calculated by the GSBST authorities, they will send us 12.5 lakh textbooks to sell," he said. He said this year to there is no dearth of textbooks and the GSBST officials inspected all the book depots on Tuesday to ensure that there is adequate supply.
"Sometimes, a retailer may run out of supply and it may take two or three days to replenish the stock. This may have given rise to the rumour that there is shortage of textbooks," he said.
RC Raval, director in-charge of GSBST said the body has ensured that there is no shortage of textbooks. "We ensured the supply of textbooks by June 14, 2010. There might have been a supply shortage for a short time but this was because of change in supply strategy," Raval said.
He said that earlier retailers from other districts used to buy textbooks in bulk from Ahmedabad. "However, this year we planned the supply in such way that they were the first to get the textbooks and in the last 10 days the books were supplied to the Ahmedabad center," Raval said.
He said the new strategy ensured that the vendors in other district need not make the rounds of Ahmedabad to get the books.
Naresh Shah, president, Book Sellers and Stationery Association also confirmed that there is no shortage of textbooks of the main subjects. "There is no shortage of textbooks of class 8,9 and10. However the workbooks are not available yet and there is some problem with the availability of English medium textbooks," Shah said.
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