The book bank scheme announced by the social welfare department is running behind two academic sessions as books are still not available for the students belonging to schedule castes (SC) and schedule tribes (ST) who are pursuing higher education in the field of medical, engineering, law, veterinary, polytechnic and management in the district.
Although new academic session is about to start, the books which were to be provided to SC/ST students through book banks in their respective colleges in the last session itself, have not reached their beneficiaries.
According to Kanchan, who completed her master degree in management from a private college of the city in 2012, she got no benefit from the scheme because of constant delay in providing books at her college. “The scheme was not helpful at all. College had book bank but the latest edition of books were missing from the stock because of the delay. Therefore we have always used the main library of the institution”, she informed.
“The fund for 2010-2011 session reached on March 31, 2011, so we could not utilise it. After sometime, the fund was freezed. The tenders for purchasing books have been invited and work is on progress since March 2012. It is speculated that books will be provided as the colleges will re-open in July”, informed Yadav.
According to Yadav, each identified student can have access to books worth Rs 5000. At the same time, the distribution of books will be based on the previous calculation of SC/ST students although of many of them have passed out the courses from their educational institutions.