Decision to corporatise STBB criticised

KOTRI:

The employees and publishers have rejected the Sindh government's decision to transform Sindh Textbook Board (STBB) Jamshoro into a corporate entity to run the operation of printing free textbooks.

They said that handing over Sindh institutions to private and favoured individuals will not be accepted under any circumstances.

MA Bharghari and Hakim Chandio of the All Pakistan Clerks Association said that the Sindh government wants to increase corruption by making the board a company. They said that shutting down profitable institutions is a deliberate conspiracy that will not be accepted. They mentioned that institutions running into loses are privatised.

They appealed to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to take effective steps in this regard so that the textbooks given to children can be protected from corruption. They said that when the decision was made to establish textbook boards in the four provinces, the Sindh Textbook Board was established in Jamshoro in January 1971 through an ordinance passed in 1970. The institution has been distributing free textbooks to students of government schools across Sindh for many years.

Textbooks are distributed free of cost to students from class one to ten. Sindh government's recent decision is being severely criticised. As a result of the abolition of the Sindh Textbook Board, the future of more than 200 employees and pensioners serving there is in danger.