Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood on Saturday said the government followed the prescribed process in procuring NCERT textbooks for schools at ₹28 per copy against ₹55 under the previous dispensation. Responding to Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) allegations of “substandard” quality textbooks supplied to students, the Minister said a review has been ordered. AAP challenged Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to send the books to a laboratory for testing.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Sood said, “AAP is alleging a scam to stay relevant and misleading the public. Despite inflation, the BJP government has capped the price of textbooks for government schools that was almost double during the AAP’s tenure.” Following a review, strict penal action will be initiated against those involved in spreading deliberate falsehoods, he added.
On Friday, AAP’s Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged irregularities in the BJP government’s school textbook printing and tendering process. He claimed that the quality of the paper used in the textbooks was substandard. In response, Mr. Sood displayed a copy of the tender document and said the government had followed the prescribed process.
AAP’s challenge
Challenging Mr. Sood to make public the file in which his department officials have moved for full payment to the vendors, Mr. Bharadwaj said, “The Minister has not answered why these books have very poor printing quality and use cheap 60 GSM paper, while the tender specified standard 80 GSM paper.”
Published - October 25, 2026 01:00 am IST