Governance slippage: Attempt to sell undistributed books as pulp fails

The books were from 2011 primary school syllabus.


Our Correspondent June 11, 2012

MULTAN:


Thousands of textbooks of the Punjab Rural Support Programme (PRSP) were seized by the police on Sunday after they were informed about their sale in used books market.


District Coordination Officer Zahid Akhtar Zaman has formed a committee to probe the matter.

Scrap dealer Muhammad Amir, who has a shop in Laar, a rural area some 20 kilometres from Multan, called the police on Sunday saying that a group of men had visited him and tried to sell the Punjab Rural Support Programme primary school textbooks.

He said the group was led by a man, who had identified himself as PRSP Supervisor Muhammad Aslam. He said the books, brought in sacks, weighed a little over a tonne. He said he had agreed to pay them Rs12 per kilogramme.

Later, when he was shown the books, he said, he refused to buy them saying they were government textbooks. He said the man told him that the books were a year old and no longer of use as the syllabus had been revised.

“I was still reluctant so I went to ask some of my fellow dealers in the market if I should buy them. When the men saw me returning with them, they fled, leaving the books at my shop.”

He said he was reluctant to buy the books, since the police raided the area every week and it could have got him into trouble.

The team, accompanied by the police, has seized the books and handed them over to the Basti Malook police.

The also raided a Punjab Rural Support Programme office in Laar, but found nothing there. The DCO told The Express Tribune that he planned to pay a visit to the PRSP office himself in a few days. He said the PRSP had not distributed the books in primary schools at the first place.

“The books are untouched. It seems as if they have just been bought from the shop.”

He said he will soon visit the officials concerned to seek explanation for why the books were wasted. No case has been registered against anyone so far, he said.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2012.

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