Centre issued notice for non-availability of NCERT books

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the Centre and National Council for Education, Research and Training(NCERT) to file their replies to the allegation that all the books for the CBSE courses were not made available till the date despite the academic sessions starting from April 1.

Fixing May 8 for issuance of direction, Justice B D Ahmed asked NCERT, the government publisher of school books, and the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to file their replies by the next date of hearing.

''For the last two years the books were not made available upto July, due to connivance of the NCERT authorities with the some of the private publishers. The shortage of books was created deliberately for unlawful gains, to force the students to purchase books of the private publishers at exorbitant prices,'' said the petition filed by Avdesh Kumar Chaubey.

The books are so scarce that some of them are only available at the NCERT counter. Students are forced to puchase the books from the only counter standing in a queue for the whole day, alleged the petition.

Counsel Sugriv Dubey and Namita Roy, appearing for the father of two students, submitted that the NCERT has so far published 7.6 million books against a requirement of 25 million books all over the country.

These books are required for the students of 6th to 12th standard in various Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE)-affiliated schools in the country.

Mr Dubey alleged that History, Political Science and Mathematics books are yet to be released to the market.

The petition has sought the direction of the court to the respondents to make arrangements for publishing and supplying books before the academic sessions starts in April every year.

UNI