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The printing industry at Sivakasi is grappling with the plan to print six crore new books before schools reopen on June 15.

Also, they are worried about payment for the Samacheer syllabus books already printed. Owners of printing presses are actually in a Catch-22 situation as the government is yet to take delivery of the books printed for Samacheer syllabus, while, at the same time, they are pressured to print new books with the old syllabus for the current academic year.

“We don’t know what to do. We are in deep trouble due to this change in government and plans,” said the managing director of a leading printing press in Sivakasi. While the previous government had planned to introduce Samacheer Kalvi for classes 1 to 10 from this academic year, the present government has moved a resolution against it.

“Usually, we printers queue up in front of government offices for printing orders. But, this time, education minister C.V. Shanmugam and various secretaries are calling us up every now and then to finalise orders. They promise us that they would pay industry standards for printing new books, but they are not willing to talk about the books that we have already printed for Samacheer syllabus,“ said another industrialist.

Industry leaders point out that 15 days is a very short period to print six crore books. “It took nearly 18 months to complete the printing of six crore books at a cost of `200 crore for Samacheer syllabus. Now, this government is rushing to change things within two weeks. It will be impossible to print even if all the big printing units agree to take up the order,“ an offset printing press owner said.

DC Chennai