As is the case every year, the collusion between the city’s private schools and book sellers has commenced in the tricity. Parents are suffering financial losses due to this collusion between school operators and book sellers. A deal has been struck between book sellers and school operators, involving a significant commission. Consequently, the prices of all books have increased by 20 to 25 percent compared to the previous year. Shopkeepers’ cards are being distributed to parents directly from the schools to facilitate the purchase of books and school uniforms. Parents are provided with the shopkeeper’s visiting card at the time of admission to the school itself. Harsuhinder Pal Singh Brar, Director of School Education, Chandigarh, also currently holds the additional responsibility of GST Collector. Despite this, this illegal business continues unabated.
The general public is troubled due to the huge setting between the book sellers in the schools. On the other hand, parents have to buy books from the shops mentioned as per the instructions of the schools. Regarding this, the shopkeepers are charging their own arbitrary rates and are also selling stationery at high prices. People are getting troubled due to the huge commission between the book sellers and school operators. In January itself, the setting for getting the books is done between the book seller and the school operators.
After that, the school operators send their visiting cards to the schools. At the time of admission itself, the school operators are giving the parents the cards of where to buy the books, the visiting work of the same book seller and the uniform shop. Other books are being put up instead of NCERT and CBSE. Due to which long queues are formed outside the book shops. Last year, the team of the Tax Department of Chandigarh Administration had to raid many book shops in the city. The GST team had also checked the documents.
