City-based NGO offers second hand books free-of-cost to the needy

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 6

In a scenario where government school students grapple with a shortage of books and shooting price of school books of private schools, a city-based NGO is offering old and second hand books in good condition to the poor, to empower and educate the students of the city.

Aptly named - Concern Society, it is a city-based NGO, which has initiated a unique effort to help overcome the shortage of books at the government schools in the district, and to help all needy students to have free of cost access to their course books and reference books. Many students from CBSC and PSEB have utilised the benefits of the noble initiative launched by the society, where they buy books which they would otherwise have got from the market at exorbitant costs.

Setting up a stall at the Punjab Carnival Jalandhar Expo-2018, the NGO’s initiative stood out for its uniqueness and philanthropy. A Model Town resident, Pooja Khanna, who is the president of the NGO, said, “So far we have successfully donated more than seven hundred books at the carnival and people have also asked for our contact number, in case the books were available later.”

Pooja recently opened a book bank where she stores all books collected from several schools of the region and distributes these among the needy for their upcoming academic session.