Burhanpur Urdu-medium students of Classes 9 to 12 still without textbooks half the session on

Students of Classes 9 to 12 in Urdu-medium schools in Burhanpur district have not received textbooks even months after the session began. Students of six high schools and higher secondary schools in the city are being forced to study without books.

More than half the session is over, and the lack of books is affecting preparation for examinations.

On Tuesday, office-bearers of the District Congress Committee and some other petitioners attended the collector's public hearing in this connection. They submitted an application to Zila Panchayat CEO Srijan Verma. The application says that despite government instructions, the office of the District Education Officer has not yet distributed books to the students. The petitioners demand that the District Education Officer be directed to provide the books soon.

City Congress president Rinku Tank said discrimination was being practised in education as well. According to him, students of Classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 have not received books so far. Congress described this as playing with the students' future. Tank said the application to the Zila Panchayat CEO demands that notebooks and textbooks be provided within a week. He said Congress would launch an agitation if this did not happen.

Councillor Faheem Hashmi said the same problem occurred last year, when students also did not get books on time. This time too, the children have been waiting for books for six months.

According to Hashmi, the Directorate of Education has instructed that the books be downloaded from the Vimarsh portal, printed and then distributed to students. But the District Education Officer has not acted on this.

Hashmi warned that if the books are not distributed soon, students of all six schools will be taken to the Collectorate for a sit-in.