GUWAHATI, Jan 13 — The Children’s Literary Trust, Assam, set up in March 1987 to give a boost to children’s literature in the State, is in dire straits because of the apathetic attitude of the successive State governments. The secretary of the Trust, Sri Hrishikesh Goswami today told this Correspondent that the Trust was set up with a State government grant of Rs 25 lakh to promote children’s literature in the State and so far the trust has published more than 30 books, some of those by the well known writers of the State. One of the most well accepted books published by the Trust was Bilati Hoja by Dr Prafulla Dutta Goswami. The book was so popular with the children of the state that the fifth edition of the book was published this year. The script of the Assamese translation of Arup Kumar Dutta’s famous book Kaziranga Trail is ready but the Trust is not in a position to publish the book due to lack of funds.
Sri Goswami revealed that the Trust also held a number of school books fairs in different parts of Assam and received very encouraging response. In the recently concluded Guwahati Book Fair, the Trust sold books worth Rs 34,000. However, in the last few years, the Trust could not publish adequate number of books because of paucity of funds. Giving an account of the financial position of the Trust, Sri Goswami said that apart from the one time grant of Rs 25 lakhs in 1987, the Trust has not received any financial help from the government till date. He said that in the current financial year, the state government made a budget provision of Rs 11.26 lakh for the Trust, but till date not a single paisa was released. He said that the employees of the Trust have not received their salaries for the past 14 months, while, the Trust owes more than a lakh of Rupees to the printing presses. He said that the state libraries have not come forward to help the Trust with procurement of the books published so far, while, despite repeated requests the Secondary Education Board of Assam has not accepted any book published by the Trust as a rapid reader for school students.
The Trust yesterday submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Sri Tarun Gogoi requesting him to take immediate steps to release funds from the budget allocation to save the Trust. Sri Gogoi assured the trust secretary that he would look into the matter. The Trust secretary pointed out that there was a time when even the Publication Board, Assam, took money from the Trust to pay the salaries to its employees and the Board still owes Rs 1.50 lakh to the Trust. He said that the Trust needs financial help from the government as ‘apart from publishing books, we also hold seminars, school book fairs and celebrate events like world book day to promote children’s literature and such events cost money.” The Trust submitted a proposal for the publication of a children’s encyclopedia to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry in March 1999, but till date we have not received any response from the HRD ministry” the Trust secretary said.
Meanwhile, Sri Goswami has lodged a formal complaint with the Chief Minister against the Publication Board secretary Bimal Kumar Hazarika. In a memorandum to the Chief Minister, the Trust secretary alleged that on January 10 last, the Board secretary had seized the vehicle and books of the Trust because the Trust failed to pay the rent for the book fair stall. He said that the Board still owes more than Rs 1.50 lakh to the Trust and till date the Board never took any rent from the Trust for book fair stalls.