Pokhara, May 6:

The lockout in the western regional sales depots of the Janak Education Material Centre and the Sajha Prakashan ended today after the JEMC dispatched some books for the region.

Yesterday, the Kaski chapter of the Federation of Nepal Books and Stationers’ Entrepreneurs (FNBSE) had padlocked the depots to press them to supply more textbooks. The lockout ended after the JEMC agreed to send textbooks for the western regional districts within two weeks, Krishna Dev Kafle, president of FNBSE at Kaski chapter, said.

FNBSE has said that the JEMC and Sajha Prakashan’s regional offices are not doing enough to smoothen the supply of textbooks in the 16 districts of the region. Sajha Prakashan has also been accused of distributing educational materials irregularly.

Meanwhile, the Sajha Prakashan has informed that delay in publication of textbooks by the JEMC was due to the Tarai unrest, CA election and prolonged load shedding.

Western regional chief of Sajha Prakashan Prem Bahadur Karki said they had repeatedly written to the JEMC to supply adequate books on time but the call has gone unheard.

Today we received 70,000 textbooks for Grades II to X. There is a demand of 55,000 textbooks for Grades I to III and 40,000 for Grades IV and V. Similarly, 15,000 textbooks of Grades VI, VII and VIII and 12,000 books for Grades IX and X will be required to meet the existing demand, he said.

Last year there was a demand for 10,000 Grade IX and X textbooks but this year the demand went up due to the change in curriculum, he said adding that the JEMC had said it would provide textbooks within the next two weeks.