Rajamahendravaram: Libraries facing funds crunch, shortage of staff

Rajamahendravaram (East Godavari District):  Due to lack of funds and staff, the library system is suffering a lot. The District Library Institution was started in 1952. A total of 48 branch libraries have been established in erstwhile East Godavari district (currently the districts of East Godavari, Kakinada and Ambedkar Konaseema). A few years ago, 160 book distribution centres were opened and the strength of the branch libraries has gone down to eight.  There is only one staffer in some branch libraries. All the work should be done by the librarian himself. In other places, the outsourced employees have been deployed on duty.

The library cess collected by local bodies will be utilised to take care of the maintenance of libraries. This amount is deposited directly into the library account. But the government started using the amount for its own needs. Due to this, payment of library cess has been kept pending for years. Following the concern expressed by library staff, some pending dues were released. Subsequently, the government has promised to ensure that the local bodies would transfer the cess amount into the account of a library. But even this was not implemented. Cess collected in the name of libraries has not been transferred to Granthalaya Samstha in all districts across the State. If we take the erstwhile East Godavari district as an example, from 2011 till now a sum of Rs 30 crore is due towards the library cess from the State government.

In the event of the retirement or death of a branch library employee, no further recruitment is being made to fill up the vacancy. Due to lack of staff, the library branch has to be closed. So far about 40 branch libraries have been closed. VLSSV Prasad, secretary of the library organisation, told The Hans India that it is true that there are no appointments in the branch libraries.  But library services did not stop. He said they would be continued through book distribution centres. He said that 160 book distribution centres were functioning fully across the erstwhile district and the employees were providing services to them on honorarium. There are 204 librarian posts across the district. He said that in the past permission was given to fill up 31 posts in the branch libraries. He said that they were awaiting government's permission to recruit the sanctioned staff. It is learnt that more than 60 per cent of the posts are to be filled in the erstwhile EG district. At present, there are 65 government employees and 35 outsourced staff working in all the libraries.