It may take a few more days to bridge the gap between demand and supply of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for the academic session 2019-2020. Bookshop owners are of the view that the unavailability of the textbooks, especially of Mathematics, will get resolved in a month.

“I have been in this profession for the past three decades, and every year during the start of the academic session there is a book shortage problem. However, once the summer vacation starts and fresh supply comes in, the crisis ends,” said Sunil Gupta, who runs a bookstore in Adchini.

Demand rise

He said currently there is no stock of Maths textbooks for classes VI to VIII.

“This time there is a rise in demand for NCERT textbooks from private schools too,” said Gupta. Students, who are yet to get the latest textbooks for this academic session, are either getting the books photocopied or are borrowing them from their seniors.

Another bookshop owner from East Azad Nagar, said: “The shortaged may be because NCERT was probably late to start the printing. However, the scarcity will end in a month.”. d An official in the publication division of NCERT said, “There is no such shortage as per my knowledge. Books are also being delivered continuously in our four regional production-cum-distribution centres”.

The department has Regional Production-cum- Distribution Centres, one each in Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Guwahati. Amid the ongoing issue, NCERT issued a statement noting that it has taken necessary steps to ensure availability of textbooks across the country for the academic session 2019-20.

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