Thane: UMC initiates 'Book Donation Campaign' in all Ulhasnagar schools

Thane: The Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) has initiated a book donation campaign for all the schools in the city. The UMC chief initiated this book donation campaign on Wednesday for the benefit of needy students.

During the book donation campaign, all types of textbooks and other reference books in all mediums will be collected from the schools and they will be kept in the library to make them available free of cost to needy students.

The initiative has been started under the guidance of UMC commissioner Aziz Shaikh, additional commissioner Jamir Lengarekar, deputy commissioner Subhash Jadhav, administrative officer Ashok More, accountant Neelam Kadam and Yogesh Marathe of NGO Samagra Shiksha.

There are a total of 194 schools including 22 municipal schools and 91 private subsidized and 81 non-subsidized schools under the jurisdiction of UMC Education Department. Instructions have been given to collect old books in all these schools.

'Thousands of books are usable'

Aziz Shaikh, UMC chief said, "Many students of Ulhasnagar civic schools donate their used books every year. Even when thousands of books are usable, new books are bought in exchange afford books. In ancient times people used to use those books again and again. Nowadays these things are not done with dignity. Considering the environment, trees are slaughtered for paper. The paper should be used less to protect the environment. Thousands of new books are printed every year in the form of old books that go to waste. This campaign is being implemented with the idea that the use of old books should be encouraged to protect the environment."

Jamir Lengarekar, UMC's additional commissioner said, "Many parents have to buy expensive books for their children when they cannot afford them Poor, needy children cannot buy all the books. There is a dire need for such initiatives. This book donation campaign has been initiated to reuse old used books, guides, business books, books of articles and literary works of all mediums from junior KG to the college level of the city and reach them to the right people."