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Public libraries facing fund crunch
Public libraries in Srikakulam district and across the state as well are facing fund crunch as local bodies are not paying library cess properly. Village panchayats, municipalities and corporations have to pay eight per cent every year as cess from their revenue which was collected by way of taxes from the people
Srikakulam: Public libraries in Srikakulam district and across the state as well are facing fund crunch as local bodies are not paying library cess properly. Village panchayats, municipalities and corporations have to pay eight per cent every year as cess from their revenue which was collected by way of taxes from the people. The cess is the only revenue source for public libraries for its maintenance, including payment of salaries of the staff. In Srikakulam, pending cess payments reached Rs 1.37 crore from all local bodies.
In all, 45 public libraries, including one central library, total are being run across the district. Central library located at the district headquarters. In addition to it, 111 book deposit centres (BDCs) also functioning in the district.
All libraries and book deposit centres are being maintained under supervision of Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha (ZGS). In all the libraries and BDCs total 55 employees are working which is very less to maintain it and another 67 staff are necessary for running all the libraries and BDCs. There is no sufficient furniture, water facility, purchasing of new books and repair works of buildings remained on papers due to lack of funds.
“With the support of district administration, we have collected Rs 1.32 crore this year as cess from all the local bodies and fixed a time bound target for collection of remaining Rs 1.37 crore cess,” ZGS chairman Peerikatla Vital Rao.
“We are demanding government payment of salaries from 010 account through treasuries on par with employees of other departments to avoid dependency on cess funds alone,” state president for ZGS employees of 13 districts Kona Devadas elaborated.
“Employees of libraries are depending only on cess funds and local bodies are not paying it properly as a result development works also stalled at libraries”, explained ZGS employees district president Tamiri Vykunta Rao.
By Ch Lakhsmana Rao
