Chennai: Leaders of various political parties, writers and film personalities have condemned the procurement of substandard books for Periyar Arivulagam and demanded a free and fair probe.MNM leader Kamal Haasan said the alleged procurement of substandard and fake books was a ‘grave insult and disgrace to the Tamil language’. “I call on TN govt to withdraw these fake books and burn them in the streets. We are indebted to writer Perumal Murugan for exposing this fraud,” he said.CPM state general secretary P Shanmugam demanded TVK govt constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged scam. He said investigation should establish who floated the tenders and when the books were purchased. “Identify those responsible for procuring poor-quality and unsuitable books and take stringent action against them,” he said. He also urged the govt to constitute a panel of Tamil scholars to scrutinise the library’s collection and weed out fake and substandard books.PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss said corruption in matters relating to education and public libraries was unacceptable. Highlighting that libraries are meant to build an enlightened society by housing useful, knowledge-advancing literature, he condemned spending public funds on obscure and unhelpful books.NTK leader Seeman also demanded stern and quick action from the govt. TNCC president Manickam Tagore wondered whether similar irregularities took place in other such facilities in the state and urged the govt to look into them.
