A syndicate of unscrupulous businessmen is selling banned note and guidebooks in different parts of Barisal city, flouting government ban.
District administration along with law enforcers often conduct raids in different wholesale book markets and they sometimes seize a good number of books, but it seems it is not enough to stop such illegal trading.
A mobile court in a drive seized a huge quantity of note and guidebooks in the city yesterday.
Executive Magistrate Qamruzzaman accompanied by Administrative Magistrate Shafiullah Tapan and members of law enforcement agencies conducted the drive at Barisal River Port.
The mobile court was informed that a huge amount of illegal note and guidebooks were brought to the port from Dhaka by MV Parabat 11 to sell those in different parts of Barisal region.
Acting on the information, the mobile court conducted a raid at the port and seized at least 285 sacks where 1,250 guidebooks of secondary level had been kept. The total value of the catch was about Tk6 lakh, said mobile court sources.
The sacks were meant to be sent to Islamia Library and Rahmania Library, but none from those two wholesale book sellers came to receive the
books, sensing the drive of the mobile court.
After recovering the books, the mobile court ordered its officials to destroy them immediately.
When quizzed, the proprietor of Rahmania Library, Mizanur Rahman, said publishers of guidebooks had sent those copies without contacting with local book sellers first.
Acknowledging the rampant sale of guide and note books in the city and town markets, the officials of the district administration told the Dhaka Tribune that their drives against the selling of illegal note and guidebooks would continue in future.
The demand for note and guidebooks among students is high because of failure of the entire education system, said Delwar Hossain Rupak, president of Barisal Book Sellers’ and Publishers’ Association.
Das Gupta Ashish Kumar, former headmaster of Chaitanya Govinda Mohon Institution of the city and regional president of Bangladesh Teachers Association, said before standardization of educational institution and introducing indiscriminate unitary education system, needs for note and guide books could not be eliminated.
For lack of quality education system, markets are witnessing an influx of low quality guidebooks published at different places of the country and a section of unscrupulous traders are marketing the books defying the government ban, he said.
So government should first ensure the proper system and status of education sectors before taking steps to ban note and guidebooks, he added.
A notebook seller in the city requesting anonymity said he had been selling the banned note and guide books and textbooks printed secretly avoiding real addresses of printers and publishers since the beginning of this year.
“We sell the books at high prices to cover business risks and high demand for those books,” said another bookseller at Sadar Road in the city.
Earlier in 1980, the government banned printing, importing, sale and distribution of notebooks as they stifle the creativity of students.
However, the notebook publishers went to the High Court challenging the government ban. Then a High Court bench in 2008 gave a verdict banning not only notebooks but also guidebooks.