18 April 2004	Sunday	27 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 17: The distribution of free of cost textbooks among about 2.8 million students of Class I to V, in government primary schools of the province, has once again been delayed.

As the imported consignment of the printing paper meant for free books is still to be delivered to the Sindh Textbook Board, officials concerned are not in a position to give a fresh date for supply of sets of books to the city and district governments, a source in the Sindh Education department said on Saturday.

Earlier, the STB had announced that books would be made available to local governments' education department till the mid-March, which could not happen. On April 1, when the new academic session for the school-goers commenced in the province, the STB came up with the notion that the plan could not be materialized accordingly due to delay in the transfer of required funds to the STB from city or district governments.

Advising the students of government primary schools to not to purchase the textbooks in question, at that time the STB had announced that the books would be provided to them through the district governments from April 25.

Interestingly, the STB had also been failing to supply 20 to 30 per cent of the total textbook titles, meant for students of private schools, and particularly for students of classes VI to VII of government schools.

April 25 is nearing, but none of the publishers registered with STB had been provided with the paper required for printing of free books, a market source added.

The insiders attributed the repeated failures of the STB to an agreement between a private party and the board, executed for supply of 2,439 tonnes of printing paper. Market sources alleged that the contract was not evenly balanced.

When contacted, STB Chairman Mushtaq H Qureshi said that it was obvious that the board would not be able to meet the deadline of April 25. Due to delay in supply of Indonesian paper, now we were once again reviewing the schedule of supply of books to districts for primary school students, he added and hoped that the board would start getting paper in question from April 19.

To a question, he said that he understood that the private party had failed to provide paper within the stipulated period as per agreed schedule of the supply, and as such it could be questioned and actions could be taken against it.

He once again maintained that the delay was only because the government had failed to ensure flow of money for the purpose of free distribution of books. He said that opening of a letter of credit for import of paper individually in a schedule bank was not a new development as the STB too in 1993 had opened LC for imported paper.

When asked to comment on views that the agreement between the private party and the STB was loose in nature, or chairman had been failing to take any action against the party for not adhering to the given schedule, the STB chairman did not give any categorical answer.

According to insiders, the agreement between the private party and the STB, however, did not suggest any harsh action in case of violation of paper supply schedule. Clause 15 of the agreement said "that in case of non-supply of any part of the quantity of paper within three months, as provided in Clause 8, both parties can mutually deliberate and the chairman may extend the schedule of delivery. The chairman may also consider such extension with or without damages accruing to either parties."

Another clause of the agreement said that in case any difference or dispute, whatsoever, with regard to any matter connected with or arising out of the agreement, such dispute would be settled through mutual consultation, and in case of non-resolution of dispute, that matter would be referred to the board of governors or through arbitration.

According to the schedule of supply, the paper was to be supplied at the STB's Landhi Godown, was as follows: December 30, 2003-1,500 tonnes; January 15, 2004-500 tonnes; February 15, 2004-439 tonnes.

Talking on behalf of the private party, Asif Jamil, said that the paper consignment in question had reached the Karachi port on Feb 6. "We were unable to move further as the STB failed to provide necessary funds," he added, saying that his firm had been doing its job as per the agreement.

Sindh government has constituted a committee to look into the causes of delay in the printing of textbooks by the STB, adds APP.