HYDERABAD, May 11: A three-member team of the Sindh education department has begun inquiry to determine causes of delay in printing of textbooks and their availability in the market before the beginning of the academic year.

A Sindh Textbook Board source told Dawn here on Tuesday that the team, headed by additional education secretary Iqbal Durrani, held discussions with the chairman of the textbook board, Mushtaq Qureshi, director, technical, Masood Qureshi, secretary, Bashir Barakzai, and other board members and officials.

The team asked about the reasons which caused the delay in importing paper from Indonesia for publishing the books. The source said that the team members were informed by the officials that the board had singed an agreement with the supplier for importing about 2,400 metric tones of paper and 871 metric tones of duplex board (book covers).

However, the supplier could not ensure the delivery on time. The officials admitted before the team that the printing paper did not carry insignia of the board. They said that damages had been claimed against the supplier, whose security of Rs16.8 million had also been forfeited.

The source added that a summary had also been sent to the Sindh chief minister for relaxing rules regarding exceeding cost of papers that was close to Rs3 million.

The source said the cost of 2,400 metric tones of paper was around Rs15 million. Some documents, including papers of the agreement, were also provided to the team members.

ROBBERY: Two armed men looted Rs400,000 from the owner of an oil mill, Govind Ram, here on Monday. Mr Ram had drawn an amount of Rs569,000 from a bank, located in the Market police station.