By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Dec 19: Dispur’s largesse in the form of giving students textbooks free of cost has given rise to a clash of interests between two sections of hard working people in the State – one is for making their ends meet and the other for eking out their income.
All Assam Publishers and Book Sellers’ Association (AAPBSA) is going to keep their shutters down for four days from December 20, 2017 in protest against Dispur’s policy of supplying books to students in the State free of cost. There are as many as 5,000 book sellers in the State. The Association has also decided not to take part in Guwahati Book Fair this time around in protest. The Association takes part in the book fair with around 70 stalls every year. The Association has the support of its counterparts in Kolkata and Delhi in its decision.
Talking to newsmen at Guwahati Press Club, Association vice president gen Sarma said: “We’ve met the Chief Minister and the Education Minister against the government’s decision to supply students textbooks free of cost. We’ve made them known that the step is going to make a large number of youths eking out their income in the State jobless. However, no positive response is forthcoming from them as yet.”
The move taken by Dispur is a boon for the poor section of people in the State who have to work hard to make their both ends meet. It, however, is a bane for a section of people in the business of publication and selling of books in the State that has not been able to provide job avenues to lakhs of educated youths.