Chennai: Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer So. Dharman has urged the library to release the list of books purchased and the opaque accounts as a white paper.
In this regard, he said: Professor and writer Perumal Murugan and his wife are investors in the Kalachuvadu publishing house. Can someone who has invested in a private publishing house be a member of the government book selection committee? If he was indeed included there, how many titles from that private publishing house were selected through him and entered government libraries, and what is the total value of the book purchase orders issued during the DMK regime to organizations with direct political affiliations such as Bharathi Puthakalayam and New Century Book House?
They call it a transparent book procurement policy. But no government publishes a list showing which publishers received how many books for what amount. Through the Central Government’s ‘Samagra Shiksha’ scheme, many publishers have secretly received book procurement orders. Who were the officials who issued these orders, and why were these orders not uploaded on the website as per the Central Government’s guidelines?
A group of a few specific individuals operating under the name of the Chennai International Book Fair receives a large sum as grants and government funding. Likewise, several crores were allocated under the Kalaignar Medical Book Translation Project to translate medical books into Tamil. How many books have been printed so far?
Book procurement is a noble effort that uses the public’s tax money to create reading material for generations. The government should immediately intervene in this and demand a white paper on all procurement lists and all opaque accounts. He said this.