Forewarning is a vital means of dealing with fu tore crisis. In our case such early signals are a rare event. And even when such rare warnings come, they arc mostly ignored or not taken seriously to avert an impending crisis. One classic-case of indifference is the printing ol text books for the secondary schools this year The Khulna Newsprint Mill (KNM) every year tuns a lean pe riod during the months of September October But this year the mill s problems were of a far serious nature. This is despite the KNM s claims it made on the contrary when the first hint of the crisis was available. The press however insisted that the country's publishing industry would be in a dire situation. Later on the KNM too admitted its own incapacity.

However, there was enough time for the government to act decisively and overcome the newsprint crisis. So acute was the crisis that the newspapers had to make do with a reduced allocation on their newsprint quota. The students also were badly hit as the prices of both newsprint and white paper registered a sudden rise. Student bodies bolstered bv the support of general students made-a series of protests against the price hike of newsprint and its unusual crisis. It was also correctly predicted that the Ekushey book fair would be badly hit because of the scarcity of newsprint. Some publishers on their own went to Calcutta to get books published be cause of lower costs there.

The government however remained unmoved. What it did at last was the sanctioning of permission for importing newsprint from abroad. But it proved too little too late. With the import duty on newsprint having been reduced only the other day. it wifi be sometime before this has any posi tive effect on the price. The results are for everybody to see. The students of the secondary schools have passed one month without most of their text-books. And. who knows how long they would still have to wait for books on all subjects to be published and delivered to them? The Ekushey book fair is getting a lean supply of new books. There is an apprehension that no more than half the number of books published every year on the occasion will be ready for the fair.

This is an incalculable loss. Whatever may be the authorities considerations, they have overlooked the value of education as well as that of the creative power of our writers. The crisis could be obviated through emergency import of the material. The expanses involved would have been insignificant compared to the benefit gained. Let it be a lesson for the future.