The 42nd Book Fair, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, may have become part of Chennai’s cultural milieu.
Yet publishers complain that library orders have fallen by the wayside.
The issue was raised in the Assembly by former minister and DMK MLA Thangam Thennarasu, who wanted to know whether a committee had been formed to buy books.
“Has the government taken any action because these books will reach the shelves of libraries across the State,” he asked.
School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan said there was a demand for increasing the price for books since the cost of paper and printing had increased.
But many publishers are not optimistic about this though.
“I have not received any orders from the government for the last five years. Sometimes I feel it is better to opt out of library orders since the price fixed by the government is much below the production cost. If you calculate royalty, paper and printing cost, you will get nothing from a government order,” said K.S. Pugazhendhi of Sixth Sense Publications.
He also pointed out that 99% of the books printed exclusively for the government library orders would not be available in the open market.
Growing trend
The trend began after the DMK government led by M. Karunandhi increased the book orders for libraries from 600 to 1,000 copies with the intention of helping the publishers.
“Today a publisher runs a dozen publications in different names only for the sake of getting government orders. These publishers have no contact or feel of the readers and the quality has suffered a setback,” said Kannan Sundaram of the Kalachuvadu Publications.
He even alleged that 95% of the books were actually from publishers who were ready pay commission to officials dealing with library orders.
Badri Seshadri of the Kizhakku Pathipagam said there was an erratic purchase from the AIADMK government.