Textbooks entrepreneurs of Chitwan district on Thursday padlocked the Bharatpur office of Janak Education Materials Centre (JEMC) for failing to supply enough textbooks even though a month has already passed since the new academic session began. JEMC is the government body responsible for ensuring the availability of textbooks to schools through out the country. Chitwan Books Entrepreneurs, which distributes school textbooks to 11 districts in Narayani and Lumbini Zones, padlocked the regional administration office and godown of the JEMC demanding timely supply of textbooks. Baburam Paudel, executive director of Curriculum Development Center, who had visited the JEMC's Bharatpur office on May 8, had assured that 1 million textbooks would be printed within a week and that there would be no shortage of textbooks. "We decided to padlock Janak Education Material's office as it failed to provide us sufficient books by May 18 as promised," said Kiran Kumar Khanal, chairman of the Chitwan chapter of Nepal Books Entrepreneurs' Association. According to him, the 11 districts are still short of 1.5 million textbooks. On Thursday, the JEMC handed over 80,000 textbooks, far fewer than required. Textbooks from grade one to five, which the JEMC jointly prints with 17 private firms, are not in short supply. However, there is an acute shortage of textbooks from grades six to ten, which JEMC has the sole authority to print. According to Mohan Krishna Shrestha, chief of the Bharatpur JEMC office, there is a shortage of 700,000 textbooks. "We would prioritize Chitwan and Nawalparasi districts first and distribute the books accordingly. We failed to meet the demand of these two districts as we managed to produce only two truckloads of books, instead of the required three truckloads," he added. Officials at the JEMC said that, despite the supply shortfall, the center has not been printing textbooks of late, which is the main reason behind the delay.