According to a committee constituted by the District Education Office (DEO), Kaski private schools have been fleecing students by forcing them into buying overpriced books. Several publishers have been selling old books with new price tags. [break]
“The committee will raise this issue in the upcoming meeting of Western Regional Education Directorate,” District Education Officer (DEO) Ishwor Raj Regmi told Republica.
The committee headed by DEO Regmi himself had raided go-downs of several publishers in Pokhara after book shop owners and private schools refused to increase the prices of text-books. They had informed the DEO team that publishers themselves had sent books to the market with new price-tags.
According to Regmi, Kosheli Publication Private Limited of Mahendrapul has been found to have doubled the prices of text-books.
“A book which cost Rs 75 each last year has a new price sticker of Rs 125 this year,” Regmi said. The owner of Kosheli publication, Gopal Dhoju, admitted that he increased the prices of old books.
However, Dhoju tried to justify the increment arguing that he had to pay heavy interest on loans that he took from banks last year to publish books.According to Kapil Nath Koirala, president of Consumers´ Forum, Kaski, several other publication houses like United, Bidyarthi, Satyal and Ekta have also been found selling old text-books on higher prices.
Meanwhile, Kaski district chapter of Private and Boarding Schools´ Organization (PABSON) has asked all of its member schools to not sell text-books to students.
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