Even scams have a silver lining. Last year’s recovery of books meant for free distribution under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan from scrap depots has forced the Madhya Pradesh Government to give a unique identity to every book and make it possible to track its journey till it reaches the beneficiary’s hands.

Each of the 4.85 crore books to be distributed free under the Government’s flagship programme, which seeks to universalise elementary education, will be numbered.

The schools now maintain a register, filling each book’s number against the student’s name in every subject. The last column carries the student’s signature, making it possible to account for every book printed by the Madhya Pradesh Text Book Corporation (MPTBC).

In yet another measure to streamline the distribution, the corporation now dispatches books from its regional depots directly to each of the 318 blocks, including five urban blocks. Earlier, the books were sent to the district headquarters, which delayed their distribution and left a huge scope for manipulation. The districts over-estimated the enrollment of students before the session began. Some did not distribute books and some simply sold them in scrap.

Now the data of every book is maintained at five places. Besides the Bhopal-based State Education Centre and the school, the records are also kept at district, block and cluster levels.

“We are treating every book like a ballot paper,” an official of the State Education Centre said, admitting that the last year’s embarrassment forced the Government to take steps that will make it very difficult for unscrupulous elements to thrive.

... contd.