By Our Reporter
Shillong: The unabated price hike of schools items like books, uniforms, bags in the market is burning a hole in the pockets of parents who have complained against the arbitrary rise in the prices of these items.
Parents have complained that this year too, there were some school books sold in the market where the printed price have been overlapped with duplicate price tags muc higher than the original rates.
“I bought this book from one shop at Khyndai Lad and was greatly surprised to find that the actual price was hidden below and another tag was overlapped. This is a matter of great concern as for we parents are concerned,” a parent lamented.
Some members of the Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) on Wednesday visited some book stores at Khyndai Lad and Iewduh and found out the complaints filed by the parents were indeed true.
On enquiring about the overlapping price tags, the books store owners blamed the publishers while saying that they were only following their direction.
Reacting strongly against such fraudulent practice, the Federation said that the increase in the prices of text books should not only come from the publishers but the same should also be regulated by the Government.
The FKJGP also asked the respective book store owners to write to the respective publishers to refrain from pasting price tags on top of the original printed price.
“We are very much concerned about this issue as it affects most of the parents and students, especially those from the economically weaker background,” FKJGP working president Joe Marwein told reporters here on Wednesday.
The Federation called upon all the private schools in the city to write to the respective book publishers to refrain from putting double stickers. It also urged the schools not to pressurize the parents to buy uniforms and books from a particular store when the same is available in the whole market.
Meanwhile, the FKJGP also expressed concern over the constant change of syllabus by the MBoSE as it tends to put additional burden on the parents and the students.
The Federation also informed that it would send a memorandum to the Education Minister and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) apprising them about this problem faced by the public every year.