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.

But the precautions taken by the Government have come at a price. Though the academic session began on July 1, about a crore books have not been distributed yet. Students of classes VI and VII at a T T Nagar school in Bhopal got their Science and English books only on Tuesday. There are lakhs of other students still waiting for some book or the other.

“Though the number is printed only on the cover page, it’s still adding to the delay. These are teething troubles arising from a new arrangement,” MPTBC managing director G K Srivastava told The Indian Express. He admitted that the distribution was also delayed due to other reasons like re-tendering of the printing paper and the delay in delivery. A paper mill in Nagpur saw a heavy fire and could not honour its commitment, he claimed.

The stringent measures were suggested in the wake of recovery of books from scrap godowns in Betul district, a scam highlighted by this paper. Thousands of books were sold to scrap dealers for as little as Rs 2 a kg.