The Times of India             12.07.2013

Civic body to buy textbooks for students of standard IX, X

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation standing committee on Thursday gave its consent to purchase textbooks for students of class IX and X of the PMC-run schools.

It has been over three weeks since the new academic year started, but students of these two classes are yet to receive their textbooks. TOI had reported about the non-availability of the textbooks on Wednesday.

As many as 5,000 students from these schools are awaiting nearly 62,000 textbooks. The books for Urdu medium schools, semi-English medium schools and Marathi medium schools are yet to arrive. Textbooks for language subjects, science and social sciences are also yet to be procured.

The proposal had been pending before the standing committee since mid-June. The proposal could not be passed as the meeting was adjourned. When the civic officials were asked about the deadline, they had said the books would reach the students in a week's time.

The administration has decided to buy the books directly from publishers. "There will be no tender system for procurement of these books. A provision in the rules allows the civic administration to buy textbooks directly from publishers without inviting any tender," said standing committee chief Vishal Tambe while speaking to reporters after the meeting.

He said the PMC will approach the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research (Balbharati) to get the books. This will reduce the time period for procurement. Schools in the city opened for the new academic year on June 17. The PMC runs 320 schools in the city, which includes Marathi, English and Urdu medium schools. More than 85,000 students are studying in these schools.