Chandigarh, April 16, 2021
Criticising the decision of Captain Amarinder Singh government to change around 35 books of the school for the academic session year 2021-22, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema said that the decision was against the rules and this will cause considerable financial loss to booksellers and the agencies. Cheema said that it has come to his attention that the Education Department of Punjab had taken several decisions in violation of educational rules in the past, which was causing great harm to those who were feeding their families by selling books.
He further said that just 15 days before the new academic session (April 1, 2021), the Education Department has decided to change about 35 books of different classes. Cheema said that the owners of the book agencies and booksellers had lost lakhs of rupees due to this dictatorial decision. “With this decision of the government, all the old books prepared on the basis of the syllabus of the Education Department are now lying at the depots of the vendors and the Board of Education and have become useless, due to which crores of rupees of the people of Punjab have been wasted” he added.
Cheema said that the Captain government should withdraw this dictatorial decision immediately. He criticised the Captain government and said that the government did not implement any correct policy related to books. “The Department of Education changes books whenever it wants, and increases the prices of books as per its wish. While this decision should be made several months before the start of the new academic session, so that the money spent on books is not wasted,” he said.
The LoP said that the schools were closed due to the Covid pandemic and the number of students had decreased, which had also adversely affected the business of the booksellers. “But the Education Department is charging Rs 1,000 as fees for getting the agency renewed every year from the booksellers, which is putting more financial burden on them,” added Cheema. He appealed to Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to immediately stop the decision to change the books and resolve the booksellers’ problems as soon as possible.
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