LAHORE - Around 25,000 students in government schools of the city alone have not so far received free books which were provided by the Punjab Government to the students of public sector schools under the 'Parha Likha Punjab' programme. Majority of the students belong to class 1, 6th and 9th. This situation is not much different in other districts of the province. The free books were distributed as far back as in May 2008 but the latest survey revealed that thousands are still deprived of this facility. The Punjab Monitoring & Implementation Unit (PMIU) mainly responsible for free distribution of the books is either suffering from some sort of mismanagement or its data regarding the strength of students is faulty. The other reason is high enrolment of students under the campaign launched on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif to bring all the school-going children to schools. For this purpose, the CM had directed the school teachers to report for duty on August 1 during the last summer vacations and hold survey in the peripheral areas of each school of those children needed to be enrolled. The work was done within a fortnight. This fetched additional number of children to schools as the summer vacations were over but the PMIU was working on the previous data. The PMIU workload could be doubled with the change in session from the previous September to April in the year 2008. The books have to be printed and distributed during the winter this year well before the start of new session in April 2009. The procedure of distribution of books is also cumbersome. The demand of each district is submitted by the ADEO to DDE who submits it to the EDO (Education) before sending it to the PMIU. The books are supplied from the PMIU warehouses set up in each town from where the books are supplied again after verification. Thus a jacket of books costing Rs 70 to 80 in the market consume equal expenditure in the distribution process. The solution lies in the availability of books on the controlled prices or free of cost in the open market from where the students can procure the books themselves. The prices can be subsidised by the government.