MPHC issues notices on textbooks being sold as scrap

Jabalpur, Apr 27 (UNI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the Centre and state government on a public interest petition seeking a high-level probe into about 2.5 lakh textbooks that were to be freely distributed to schoolchildren under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) but were instead seized from a scrap-dealer's godown in Betul district.

While hearing a plea by Betul's Anurag Modi here yesterday, Chief Justice Anang Kumar Patnaik and Justice Krishna Kumar Lahoti issued notices to the Secretary (Human Resource Development); Secretary (School Education); Commissioner (SSA) and Collector, Betul. May 9 was fixed as the next date for hearing.

''Under SSA, managed by the state's School Education Department, textbooks are distributed to students of the first to eighth standard. Official records show that such textbooks were distributed in Betul in 2006-07 and the Collector sent related information to the government but the books were found in the godown,'' said Petitioner's Counsel N S Kale.

UNI