The six-day fest witnessed good purchase by teachers from the taluks. However, Harohalli Ravi, one of the staff at a stall in the expo, said, in addition to the official 20 per cent rebate, owners of some stalls were giving a further discount of 20 to 30 per cent on the reduced price “secretly”.
Ravi said it was for this reason that the teachers were thronging only those shops that gave a rebate and not the ones where good books were available. The high schools were given Rs 13,000 for each school and the lower primary schools got Rs 3,000 each, to buy books for the libraries. The teachers went out of their way to fill the receipts themselves, he said.
Some of the teachers were heard asking the owners of other shops also to give them the additional discount. This happened despite the organisers issuing instructions that books should be bought with the rebate amount too and that all stalls should be visited.
Ravi said complaining to the officials was of no use. “The book festival had come to end two days prior to the scheduled date of closing (November 26).”
