PTB bans use of recycled paper for books

By Khalid Khattak

LAHORE: The Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) has banned the use of recycled paper in preparation of textbooks in order to ensure the provision of quality books to the students of government and private schools of the province. The PTB has also formed an advisory committee comprising of representatives of publishers, mill owners and the board which would monitor the entire process of textbooks printing for the coming academic session. The initiatives have been taken on the special directions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who took stern notice regarding the provision of poor quality textbooks to the students. Teachers and students have been raising objections to the low quality textbooks being distributed by the government among the students of the government schools. The Punjab government provides free textbooks to students of the government schools across the province. Sources in the PTB said 70 million textbooks would be printed for free distribution among students for the next academic session. They said publishers and printers had been directed to ensure the use of fresh pulp and not recycled paper in preparation of the books. They said the mill owners had also been asked to certify their paper, adding the initiative was aimed at discouraging the practice of using poor quality paper for printing of the textbooks.They said the PTB officials had a meeting with Punjab Chief Secretary (CS) Javed Mahmood recently, adding the CS had ensured the assistance of district administration to carry out raids during the printing process. They added the PTB Subject Specialists would also be part of the monitoring teams to ensure that the entire process of publishing and printing was up to the standard. A PTB official, seeking anonymity, said at present 75 percent of the books which were distributed among students of public schools free of cost were printed through open tender system while the remaining 25 percent, meant for open market for sale among students of private schools, were printed through the allocation system. He said owing to the use of recycled paper the PTB had to receive complaints regarding poor quality of books, adding that the banning of recycled paper would certainly help fix the problem.He said, under the open tender system, the entire process of books printing including purchasing of paper was done by the publishers while under the allocation system it was responsibility of the PTB to provide paper to the publishers for printing of the textbooks. He said the PTB would ensure the provision of quality paper to them.The official said in order to avoid any unpleasant situation in the provision of books the PTB had also fixed the dates of orders adding the task would be completed in three installments. He said, for the first installment, Dcember 31, 2008 had been fixed as the last date while for second and third installments January 31, 2009 and February 15 would be the deadlines respectively. When contacted, PTB Chairman Sohail Masood confirmed banning of the recycled paper in preparation of textbooks, adding an action would be taken if the new criterion was violated. He said since mills had been asked to certify their papers they would ensure the provision of quality paper as their repute would be at stake. He added the paper provided by the PTB to the publishers would also carry watermark of the board so that no one could use low quality paper.

Source: The News International

Saturday, September 20, 2008