Fund crunch hits libraries in Chittoor

Tirupati: The development of libraries under Grandhalaya Samstha has been severely hampered in Chittoor district with huge arrears of library cess from various municipalities and gram panchayats.

The pending arrears of cess over several years has mounted up to cross Rs 17 crore with which Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha (ZGS) has been sandwiched between the modernisation needs and the fund crunch and was struggling to find a way forward.

The Library Act 1961 made a provision of eight percent cess on the amount of house tax collected by the local bodies to be credited to the ZGS. Accordingly, it has to be transferred to the PD accounts by them which the State Grandhalaya Samstha (SGS) will deposit in the accounts of the ZGS.

While some local bodies have been remitting the library cess promptly, many others were failing to do so creating a major hurdle for the ZGS to take up any developmental works apart from meeting the regular maintenance needs.

According to the ZGS officials, out of the Rs 17.90 crore arrears, the Tirupati Municipal Corporation has become the major defaulter by not paying Rs 8.06 crore cess followed by the Chittoor Corporation with Rs 2.79 crore dues. Other municipalities – Srikalahasti, Puttur, Punganur, Palamaner, Nagari and Puttur have Rs 1.79 crore dues while various gram panchayats owe Rs 4.43 crore cess to the ZGS.

For the construction of new buildings, monthly maintenance of 71 ZGS libraries, including one central library in Chittoor and 90 book deposit centres to which the paper bills and remuneration for the person maintaining it being paid by the ZGS, to buy new books to keep the libraries updated, to attend any repair works, etc, the only source of income is library cess.

In addition, the ZGS has to pay the salaries of outsourcing employees from the cess amount as they were asked to do so and adjust it later when the government releases the funds. All these have become a heavy burden on ZGS.

When contacted by The Hans India, ZGS Secretary

K Prakash said that the dues are pending for long and now they initiated steps to communicate to the local bodies requesting them to

clear them at the earliest. They have taken up the matter with Joint Collector (Development) V Veerabrahmam who is also the person in-charge of the ZGS to proceed accordingly.

To a question, he said that the construction of the new building for the ZGS in Chittoor which was estimated at Rs.5 crore was pending due to fund crunch.

An idea was mooted to take it up under Nadu-Nedu works for which the approvals are necessary. As part of modernisation of libraries, online cataloguing has become necessary while e-grandhalaya works are going on. For all these fund crunch has become a major hurdle.