In-red Hardayal libraries face closure

Thirteen branches of Hardayal Municipal Library in South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation areas have stuck in limbo as both the civic bodies are considering closing them in the absence of adequate funds.

However, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) has adopted remaining other 13 branches falling under its jurisdiction. Three branches are under East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).

On Tuesday, the NMC had passed a resolution in its House meeting adopting 13 branches of the Hardayal Municipal Library — including its headquarters at Chandni Chowk. After trifurcation of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the NMC has been made the nodal corporation to run all the branches of the library which was renamed as Hardayal Municipal Public Library from its original name Hardinge Municipal Public Library in 1970. The headquarter of the library, located at Gandhi Ground, Town Hall in Chandni Chowk, is one of the richest library in the city with collection of some rare books.

However, the fate of some of its branches and around 50 employees remains uncertain as the SDMC officials said they might shut down the branches under its jurisdiction. “While the library has 27 branches across the city, the headquarters of library is the best. Other branches are no match to the headquarters. Since the headquarters lies in the jurisdiction of North Corporation, it has adopted it for maintenance. As far as branches under the jurisdiction of SDMC are concerned, we need to seriously consider whether it would be prudent to run them,” said a senior official of SDMC.

A senior councillor from the ruling BJP in the SDMC said a decision of the issue of operating the library would be taken soon. “We would discuss the issue with the Mayor, senior leaders and officials of the corporation. A decision over the future of the libraries would be taken soon. If we decide to run the libraries, we would re-launch them on a grand scale,” he said.

Even as the fate of some of the branches hangs in balance, salary to the employees of the library has not been paid for the past four-five months. Deliberative wings of three civic body said the decision would hit the employees of the remaining branches as the other two corporations do not have budgetary allocation for maintaining the libraries.

Leader of Opposition in NMC Mukesh Goel said, “Before trifurcation, the MCD had a budgetary allocation of `3 crore as grant-in-aid for maintaining the library. After trifurcation the budgetary allocation was transferred to the North Corporation. The corporation has now decided to adopt only 13 branches and has allocated `2.3 crore for their maintenance. The future of the rest branches falling under South and East corporations has become uncertain as the South and East civic bodies do no have any budgetary allocation for maintenance of the library”.

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