6 months into session, 10 lakh students wait for notebooks

If North Municipal Corporation officials are to be believed, students of all three corporation schools will have to wait a few more months to get notebooks.

The North Municipal Corporation, which is the nodal civic agency, is yet to finalise the rate at which the notebooks should be bought. The schools are also waiting for desks.

Around 10 lakh municipal school students will not be able to get notebooks before February, a senior official said.

The notebooks should have been distributed in schools in July, when the session begun. The official said the process of price justification has begun after opening technical and financial bids.

“After the price justification, the selected company will be given orders on basis of requirement per corporation. We need approximately 50 lakh notebooks for municipal school students. The successful bidder will then print the notebooks, which will take another month. As far as desks are concerned, we have negotiated with the bidder but we need to see if the corporation accepts the price,” Jasram Kaim, Additional Director (Education), North corporation, said.

Rekha Gupta, chairperson of North corporation Education Committee, said, “I don’t think the students will get notebooks this semester. Red tapism has ensured that students will not study this semester.”

“We have been asking the officials about it and last week, a meeting was convened, in which it was decided that the price would be finalised. Since North Municipal Corporation is the

... contd.