Harried parents queue up outside bookstores in city

Charu Chhibber

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 27

With the new academic session about to begin, parents and students looking to buy book sets are a harried lot.

After the UT Education Department tightened the noose around schools selling books and stationery on their premises, almost all city schools have stopped the sale. Apart from this, this year, a majority of the school managements have uploaded the lists of books to be bought for each class on their official websites and left it to the parents to decide where they want to buy these from. During previous years, many schools prescribed select bookstores to parents.

This year, parents are facing a lot of problems and inconvenience. They are either frantically searching for required books for their children across bookstores or succumbing to the “monopolistic practices” of bookstores from where they have been buying books during the previous years. 

“As if running from one bookstore to the other across the city and standing in long queues to buy books was not enough, we have been left at the mercy of shopkeepers who are free to charge as much as they want,” complained Gurdial Singh, grandfather of two students of a Sector 26 school, who bought books from a store in Sector 19, Chandigarh. 

Singh complained that though the bookstore had put up a notice stating it was not compulsory to buy all items in the set, the reality was different.  “I was forced to buy the complete set even though we don’t require all as many of my elder grandson’s books are in good shape,” he lamented.

“The set of Class IV books cost me Rs 2,800 last year. However, today it cost me Rs 3,650 from the bookstore that was earlier on the list of “select” bookstores of many city schools. The booksellers understand that working parents cannot afford to run from one store to another to collect books, which is why they are overcharging us for the pre-set book collection, which though saves time, costs heavy on the pocket,” said Rajesh, a parent of Class IV and V students of St Anne’s Convent. 

He had already spent two hours looking for the prescribed books for Class IV and V students in various bookstores across the city before he came to know that these were available at the Sector 19 bookstore. 

Ritu Kandhari, another parent, added that instead of going from one bookstore to another in search of books, she preferred to go straight to the bookstore that the school had been recommending for the past many years. “At least I will get a complete set of books there and will not have to ask for every single book on the list separately,” she said. Another parent, Hardial Singh Dhamija, said the earlier practice of getting the book set from the school was convenient. “Instead of banning the schools from selling books, the Education Department should have ensured that the schools gave parents a reasonable discount. That would have been beneficial for all stakeholders. This running around the city is simply too hectic for me. I would rather pay an extra Rs 1,000-Rs 1,500 to buy all books in a set from one store than running around several stores to locate the required book,” he said. Another parent, Aashima Goel, said she had hoped that the bookstore would offer some discounts but was proven wrong when the books actually cost her more than what these cost when she bought these from the school authorities. 

“The bookstore owners just laughed when I asked for some discount,” rued the mother of one. 

Extending a helping hand

“By arranging for book sets, we were helping the parents. Once someone raised a noise and the Administration jumped in, we stopped doing that. This year, city schools have simply uploaded the book list on their websites for the parents to decide where they want to buy these from. This has increased the parents’ problems. They have to run from one shop to another to buy books, which is why numerous parents are now requesting the school authorities to help by arranging books. We are helping only those parents by arranging books from the publishers or bookstores who have asked for it,” said HS Mamik, president, Independent Schools’ Association, Chandigarh.

Bookstores gear up for rush

Bookstore owners are now preparing themselves to take advantage of the situation as they feel the rush for buying books is set to witness a sharp increase in the next couple of days.  “The number of parents visiting bookstores is still not up to the expectation. We are expecting a much better sale later this week,” said a representative of Fancy Book Store in Sector 7.