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The textbook markets in all the twelve upazilas of Tangail have been flooded with illegal and low-quality guidebooks for the students of class III to X causing concern among the conscious guardians.
   Many of these so-called guidebooks, even those published from the books hub Bangla Bazar in Dhaka, abound with huge mistakes and wrong information.
   ‘Though the ban on guidebook sale exists for more than three decades, the illegal practice still continues,’ said Shameem Al Mamun, headmaster of Hugra Habib Kader High School in sadar upazila.
   Some unscrupulous school textbook publishers in collusion with some dishonest government officials have published these guidebooks far below the minimum standard that are getting unhindered entry into the markets of the twelve upazila headquarters.
   Teachers and educationists have expressed their concern saying due to dependence on these guidebooks the students will turn away from textbooks and thus their learning capacity will fall drastically.
   In such a situation, no steps are visible from the ministry concerned for curbing sale of these guidebooks, teachers and guardians lamented.
   The banned guidebooks are on open sale in the markets of Tangail town, Karatia Bazar, Ghatail, Madhupur, Mirzapur, Delduar and also different upazila headquarters of the district.
   The publishers and sellers are making a buck taking advantage of the high demand for these guidebooks. ‘For the sake of business, we are bound to sell the notebooks since there is a great demand for those,’ a bookseller at Victoria road of Tangail town, told this correspondent seeking anonymity.
   ‘It is quite impossible to find out the publishers of the books as most of them were printed with false and fictitious addresses,’ the bookseller added.
   The ban on guidebooks imposed by the education ministry came into force on February 22 in 1980.
   As per the law, it is a punishable offence to print, publish and distribute guidebooks for the students from class III to X. But it is a matter of regret that the education ministry and the concerned agencies have done little to enforce the law effectively, a teacher said.
   Due to lack of proper enforcement of the law, guidebook sale is going on unabated, he maintained.
   District secondary education officer Laila Begum told New Age that she had already made the district administration and law enforcement agencies aware about the matter asking for emergency steps in this regard.

Members of the Bangladesh Rifles seized 2300 pieces of Indian saris worth about Tk 1.15 crore from Shoeagazi in Sadar Dakshin upazila of Comilla early Saturday.
   A team of the battalion led by Lt Col Fakhruddin Ahmed seized the 2,300 pieces of saris from a truck lying in an abandoned state at Shoeagazi in Sadar Dakshin upazila at about 5.30 am.