Mumbai: Quickly grab your Std X guidebook before stores run out of stock

Here's some good news for the students preparing for the Std X examination. After paying the royalty charges to Balbharti (State's Bureau of textbooks) under the government's copyright policy, private publishers issued the first lot of guidebooks and study materials on Friday. However, retailers are having a tough time in meeting the demand for the books, and some of them have already ordered for a fresh stock.

According to sources, these books reached the market much later than the expected time due to the sudden introduction of the state government's copyright policy, under which publishers need to pay a royalty to Balbharti for using its content for the books. However, what added to the students' anxiety was the absence of relevant study material, considering this is the first year of SSC's new syllabus. 'Old study material wasn't useful' Amogh Kamble, a student from Andheri said, "This is the first year of the new syllabus and we'll have to appear for the board examination in a couple of months. We cannot refer to any old study material. Until now we were only dependent on textbooks." Navneet, Chetna and Target are some of the publishers who have sent their books to the market. Customers have been asking for the books for a very long time.

Finally, we are being able to provide them with the material. The demand for these books is very high, as over the weekend the first stock got sold off. We have ordered for more." said Ramesh Singh from Ganesh Book Store in Borivali. 'Followed all guidelines' Meanwhile, a member of Navneet's policy management team said, "We abided by all the terms and conditions of the education department before issuing the Std X guidebooks. While we have published the books in English, the same will be done for Marathi medium as well." When contacted, Sunil Magar, director of Balbharti, said, "We are issuing licences to private publishers for reprinting our content for commercial use." Speaking to mid-day, Narendra Nandu, president of Bombay Booksellers and Publishers Association, said, "It was impossible for publishers to bring out the books without paying royalty charges."

Narendra Nandu, president of Bombay Booksellers and Publishers Association On April 13, the Bombay High Court had called the ban 'reasonable' and said, "As the government is still in the process of issuing licences, for this year publishers have been allowed to print the books without the licence number. But the number will be mandatory from next year."

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