Southern States
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Pondicherry
Need for Public Library Act highlighted
By Our Staff Reporter
PONDICHERRY, JAN. 16. The Pondicherry unit of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) has come out with a 15-point charter of pleas to highlight the necessity for the Union Territory Administration to bring in a separate Public Library Act.
The Association contended that with the literacy rate being high in Pondicherry, there should be no delay in enacting the legislation as the necessity for such a measure was felt intensly now more than ever.
When all the States in the southern region were adopting the legislation, the Union Territory also should have such a legislation without delay.
The public libraries could also be toned up in the wake of the separate Act. The services of the libraries would improve and there would be creation of a post of Public Library Director.
At present, the main library, Romain Rolland Public Library, and a few other government libraries alone were functioning in their own premises. Other libraries of the Department of Art and Culture were housed in private, rented buildings.If there is a separate Act, there would be earmarking of more funds in budget. Funds could also be raised through a permanent library cess.This would enable the libraries to have their own buildings.
The flow of funds from the Centre and through the Rajaram Mohan Roy Foundation would also be available abundantly as had been seen in States having the Act.
Referring to the situation in the century-old Romain Rolland Library here, the PWA felt that the present shortcomings could be easily tackled if the Union Territory brought in the Act. There is no chief librarian in this famous library for nearly a decade and such a trend should not be let to continue, the Association argued.
The allocation under Plan and non-Plan heads now made for the libraries was too inadequate to meet the requirements of libraries .There could be improvement in budgetary provision in the event of an Act coming into being.
The problems of librarians could also be tackled fast as the burden of the staff would not crush them.
The Act would prevent the slide-down in the development of libraries in Pondicherry which had better ambience for promotion of the library movement, the Association pointed out.
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