Thousands of Chhattisgarh school books sold to scrap dealer, probe ordered

The Chhattisgarh government has initiated an inquiry after a former Congress MLA said that heaps of textbooks meant for students at government schools were found at a recycling centre after alleging that they were sold as scrap.
Vikas Upadhyay, the former Congress MLA, alleged that the school books printed this financial year under the ‘Free Textbooks Distribution’ programme were sold to a scrap dealer and were destroyed.
India Today TV found piles of textbooks for students of government schools at the recycling centre 30 kilometres away from Raipur. The recycling centre has been sealed by the authorities for further investigation.

School textbooks for government students were sold allegedly to a scrap dealer. (Photo: India Today)

The BJP government in the state has formed a committee led by IAS officer Rajendra Katara, the Managing Director of the Chhattisgarh Textbook Corporation. The committee aims to unravel the extent of alleged corruption over the textbooks being sold to scrap companies and hold the guilty parties accountable.
BJP leader Gori Shankar Sriwas spoke about the alleged scam and said, “During Covid, while students were attending online classes, lakhs of textbooks were published and sold for scrap. The people who were responsible for turning the Chhattisgarh Textbook Corporation into a hub of corruption, are now raising their fingers at us. The BJP government understands its responsibility and is probing this matter seriously. There should be no politics over this issue.”
India Today TV spoke to some parents who have been struggling to procure free textbooks for their children this academic year. These parents have voiced their distress as their children are unable to prepare for their upcoming exams with no textbooks.
Government schools in Raipur have already felt the impact of no textbooks for children and it is likely that the issue persists in remote districts of the state.
“We have raised the issue several times with the teachers. We even escalated the matter with the principal of the government school. However, except assurances, we haven’t got anything. My children have to appear for their exams in a few days. We have loaned the textbooks from our relatives so that they can appear for the exams,” a parent said.
Students, on the other hand, complained about not getting Hindi textbooks at their school. A student told India Today TV, “We have exams in a few days. We don’t have books yet. We want to study, but it is very difficult for us with no textbooks.”
For several students, the only resort has been to borrow textbooks from their classmates, significantly hampering their preparation as their exams loom large.