Bhubaneswar, Aug. 11: Pulishers of fake books are making the most of the shortage of Plus Two textbooks. Prints of the books prescribed for the syllabi have flooded the market as the original version is not easily available.

The higher education department released the new set of Plus Two textbooks on July 9. However, students have little idea if they are buying the original books or the fake ones.

Though the contents in both the books remain by and large the same, the paper quality of the original books are far better. The fake books slightly differ in the print size, while their prints also overlap in several places.

The new books that the higher education department has released for this academic year are on the lines of the Central Board of Secondary Education's syllabi. In the first phase, the department released only 10 out of 30 prescribed books, including the compulsory ones for mathematics, chemistry, physics, English and Odia.

Odisha State Bureau of Text Book Preparation director Geetika Patnaik said: "We will release the remaining books shortly."

She also claimed that she had no information about printers and sellers of the fake books. "We are trying our best to make the genuine books available to all students," she said.

Bookshop owners, however, admitted that a good number of fake Plus Two books had already entered the market and were being openly sold.

"The books cost the same but the newsprint and print quality are compromised. The dubious sellers have simply reprinted the books and are selling it without any authorisation. There is absolutely no law or monitoring system to check this," said Bidyut Jena, a shop owner.

"The students or teachers are not bothered even if they are told that it is a pirated version. Rather, they bargain on the cost and are happy if the rates are subsidised," he said.

Textbooks have always been an easy target for unscrupulous parties as they are always in demand.

People in the industry said that on occasions, these people create a scarcity so that students rush to buy the fake ones even at increased costs. The scattered operations make it difficult for law-makers to control the practice.

"We can make out the difference between the original and pirated editions. They often photocopy the books on offset presses for a quarter of the price," said another shop owner Suresh Sahoo.

Another bookshop owner said that the publishers of fake books knew it well that the government would not be able to supply the books on time, giving them time to come out in the market with pirated versions. They waited for the new books to arrive and reprinted them. They made these books available by the first week of the session. They also sell mostly in the districts, away from the glare of cops.

"What can you expect when the government's publishers are unable to meet the demands and there is a shortage of prescribed textbooks," said Prachi Mohapatra, a student.