CM Siddaramaiah unaware of circular asking schools to buy book on him
Synopsis
The Chief Minister has stated he has not issued the circular and has no information on it.
“I had seen the book, when it was printed and writers showed it to me. I just said that the book is well written. Apart from that I have no connection with the book. The decisions taken by the education department are its own and do not come to me,” he said.
The Sahitya Loka Vedike has published the book Itta Guri-Ditta Hejje on the achievements of Siddaramaiah with a government circular stating that schools buy two copies of it. Each copy costs ₹300.
An exclusive Asianet Newsable investigation that included inputs from Prakash, proprietor of Vamshi publications, revealed that the cost of publishing one book is ₹40, though it is being sold for more than seven times that amount.
Taking into account the 73,000-odd schools in the state, buying two copies each per school will result in a financial setback of almost of ₹4.38 crore - and also a massive profit for the publishers.
The schools have to bear the cost of buying the book from the grants of their library fund. Currently, government schools are not academically and financially sound. This order is likely to be an additional burden on them.
The education department has even taken up the task of sending two copies of the book to every government and aided school in the state. The distribution of the book has started from this academic year.
Read more: Government schools forced to buy book on Siddaramaiah
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