Hyderabad:
Elections threw life out of gear not just for politicians and the voters but also for school children. That's because diversion of official machinery for the election exercise has caused a huge delay in supply of school textbooks this year in Andhra Pradesh.
Gopalakrishna is a much-harassed dad. His son is now in class IX and it's been more than a week since the new academic year has begun but Gopalakrishna has not been able to get the prescribed textbooks despite making the rounds of bookshops all over the city.
"These books are to be printed and supplied by the government. We surely think the machinery must have been diverted for elections. That is why they were not able to supply the books in time,'' says Gopalakrishna.
Shortage of textbooks is an every year story but this year has been particularly bad. The government admits there is a problem but is reluctant to admit it's an adverse fallout of the election exercise.
"The printing process was not shelved or delayed because of election process. Election process was on and this printing process was also on,'' said Sridhar Babu, Minister, Higher Education.
The government has now promised that within the next week the shortfall will be met; another matter that will be at least 3 weeks late for the school children.