Chairman of the Guardian´s Association Suprabhat Bhandari, who is also the member of DoE, said that the JEMC data shows that 13.7 million books were sold to Sajha Publication, the authorized distributor of the JEMC. But the officials at the Sajha replied to the monitoring team that they brought only 12.1 million textbooks from the JEMC, the sole government authority to print school level textbooks for Central, Mid West and Far West Development Regions.
The JEMC has a debt of Rs 1.3 billion, and its losses for the last six years have increased to Rs 630 million. The former high-level officials of the center were dragged into the anti-graft bodies like CIAA and National Vigilance Center for their involvement in commission for printing books.
Bhandari added that further investigations would proceed on Monday. “The JEMC and Sajha officials have been called at the DoE for more enquiries.”
However, the JEMC Chief Anil Kumar Jha claimed that the DoE team attended the routine inspection and did not complain of books missing from JEMC records.
The DoE had assigned the center to print 24.4 million textbooks for this academic year as per the government´s flash report 2012. However, the number was reduced to 22 million textbooks for an estimated 6.1 million students from grade one to 10 this year.
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