A Bangla daily reports that low quality paper is used for publication of most text books. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has been allowing vendors to print books on papers that are collected from paper-mills running without the certificates of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI).
Out of 106 paper mills in the country, only 18 are running with standard of product certificates issued by BSTI, and depositing tax to the government and producing quality papers.
Every year on January 01, a book festival is celebrated across the country. We are happy to see the smiling faces of children on that day. It is alarming that the papers used in the books are of low quality. Also the bindings of the books are poor and so they are easily torn within a few months.
In a recent laboratory test of the papers with which books were printed, it was found that the GSM--'grams per square metre' indicating thickness--of the papers was 46.56 whereas it should have been 60, brightness was 66.44 per cent which should have been 85 per cent.
To know the strength of the papers, it is crucial to know the 'fair factors' of the papers. There is no mention of this in the specification of the papers used in printing of the books.
Since the papers with which books are printed are also collected from unauthorised sources, the government is being deprived of huge amount of revenue which it could get as fee of CSM (Certification of Marks) license. This is a big economic loss for the country.
We urge the NCTB to take preventive measures so that youngsters get textbooks in good quality papers and the government earns good amount of tax from all the 106 paper mills of the country.
Hosne Ara
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
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