Amdadul Haque
The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) will take stringent actions against 10 printing presses for selling fake books, supplying low quality textbooks and failing to supply government books within the stipulated time.
The NCTB may blacklist or ban for life any of those organizations, sources said here.
The agency gave notices to the accused companies last month to show cause, they also replied last week. Last year, three companies duplicated and marketed books of eleven classes which were approved by the government. The remaining seven institutes resorted to various irregularities, frauds and violation of conditions in the printing of textbooks for the year 2020.
According to NCTB sources, the NCTB sued three companies for marketing duplicated books of eleven-class. The three establishments are Five Star Printing Press in Matuail of the capital, Oyon Printing Press on RM Dash Road and Raiyan Printers of 37 no RM Dash Road.
Sources said, the notices given to the seven institutions which printed textbooks at the secondary level are—Capital’s Shetu Offset Press on RM Dash Road, New Nahar Press and Publications of Rupchad Das Lane, Ma-Baba Printers of PC Benarji Lane, Vai-vai Press and Publications of Badsha Mia Road of Matuail, Rupchad Das Lane's Amazon Printing Press, Nozrul Islam Printing Press of Golap Saha Lane and Molla International Printing Press and Packaging of Thakurgaon district.
About 10 institutions (printing-houses), NCTB Member Farhadul Islam told The Bangladesh Post that “We filed cases against three institutions. The court will decide what legal actions will be taken against these three organizations. In our today’s (Sunday) production committee meeting, out of remaining seven entities, we have decided to ban two institutions for one year and three institutions permanently.”
Farhadul, also the convener of Permanent Production Committee of NCTB said, “We have decided not to ban two other institutions on condition of fine. The fine will be fixed against them as per their offense (how many duplicate books they have printed).”
He further said, “All decisions of Permanent Production Committee’s meeting will be presented before the NCTB board meeting. The board meeting will take the final decision.”
Last year, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board NCTB supplied 35 crore 39 lakh 94 thousand and 197 copies of free textbooks for the year 2020. The books were distributed to 4 crore 27 lakh 52 thousand and 158 students across the country. The total number of printed books for the secondary level was 24 crore 77 lakh 42 thousand 179 copies for the year 2020. A total of 253 printing companies across the country worked on publishing these secondary books.
