Neither the Gujarat government nor the ministries under it have placed any order so far for the reprint of Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi — a collection of Gandhi's writings, including letters, essays and personal notes, that culminated in a 100-volume set of over 50,000 pages.

The government is not alone. While some university librarians showed immense interest, one said the library was not keen to place orders.

With the new collection coming out, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has started writing to libraries in the country, making them aware about the new volume which will be ready soon.

Priced at Rs 100 per volume, the "highly-subsidised" set is now in demand across the country, except in Gujarat.

"The Rajasthan government placed orders for about 300 sets last year, and the Uttar Pradesh government has ordered about 500 to 600 sets," said Rajesh Jha, Director (editorial) Publications Division. "But the final number is not certain yet. It is still in the process."

The Gujarat government has, however, not placed any order for the work as yet.

“We have not received any orders from the Gujarat government nor the ministries under it," said Jha.

Also, a number of the government-funded universities in Gujarat have not placed orders for the reprinted collection.

Librarian of the MS University in Vadodara, Jyoti Bhatt, asked Newsline if photostat of the brochures could be forwarded to the university library.

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