hyderabad aspirants seeking government jobs have complained of a hike in prices of study material recently not just in koti a hub of books for competitive exams but elsewhere too study material has become expensive the reason being rise in cost of paper printers and publishers say they have scaled back publishing textbooks amid fluctuations in input costs a shortage of paper has led to its price almost doubling before lockdown a kg of paper of 50gm per square meter gsm would cost rs 60 now the price is between rs 110 and 130 per kg thereby escalating the cost of books this has caused angst amongst thousands of aspirants now with the announcement of the notification for 80000 jobs prices of study material have increased this is a burden on the common man p dhanunjay a job aspirant saidwith no option aspirants can be seen haggling at koti and dilsukhnagar another hub for books job seeker v prasad who was working as an employee in a real estate company is 40 years and hoping for at least groupiv job with many responsibilities he says this additional cost adds up i bought a few textbooks and spent rs 1000 the book stall owner gave a concession of 10 but after an hourlong negotiationa fresh graduate prashant reddy native of warangal said i shifted to hyderabad for competitive exams coaching i am staying in dilsukhnagar paying a huge amount in rent the cost of competitive books above my other expenses has become a burden md sameerurrehman a leading printer and publisher said the cost of textbooks weighing 1kg is rs 400 though faced with a paper shortage we are printing material at a discounted price for the benefit of job seekers