As early as June, instructions were given to scrutinise the files
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's decision to convert the Anna Centenary Library premises in Kotturpuram to a children's hospital, now stayed by the Madras High Court, may have seemed rather sudden, but there were signs of what was in store for the library soon after the AIADMK government took over.
According to a source in the School Education Department, as early as June, instructions were given to scrutinise all files pertaining to the library.
Officials of the Vigilance Department were also entrusted with this task.
All the documents exchanged among different departments right from the time the project was conceived to the point when books were procured were read with utmost care to look for lapses.
Some officials also observed that while a total of five lakh titles were purchased ahead of the inauguration of the library on September 15, 2010, the process of sourcing the remaining nearly seven lakh titles slowed down significantly after the AIADMK came to power.
“There were administrative delays at every stage. Everybody's hands were tied,” an official said.
The management of the air-conditioned auditorium, now famous for having hosted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was quietly shifted from the Public Libraries Department to the Information Department.
Sources in the State government confirmed that this shift happened around the time Ms. Clinton visited the city.
Anyone who wishes to hire the swanky space must now go through the Information Department.
Additionally, any attempt to get feedback on the library from users seen on the premises was met with severe resistance by staff at the Kotturpuram library over the last few months. Some staff members told reporters that they could not speak to anyone even at the parking lot of the library. Photographers, too, were asked not to take any visual of the facility.
All the same, readers and users of the facility love being there.
Whether it is about civil service aspirants who spend hours together at the facility everyday or children seen sitting beneath the artificial tree created at the library, legs stretched and lost in their books, everyone clearly wants it to stay.
Keywords: Anna Library, children's hospital, Jayalalithaa government
The Govt should only do what Dinamani has said in its editorial recently.The scandel part of the previous DMK regime should be unearthed and punihed.Not this costly and foolish action.Better to raise the existing,languishig children's hospital at Egmore to world standards
Absolutely stupid decision ..I'm sure ADMK will lose the next election
Why does The Hindu so cares about the so called library? The Hindu has never shown interest in socially small and petty matters for long time. But, whenever the matter has some impact on the paper, it suddenly shows the interest. It happened before in the case of the new Secretariat building which is adjacent to The Hindu building. Now, the paper talks about the library which serves only a few privileged community. If the Hindu supports everything that serves only the smaller privileged community, then why is it calls itself a national newspaper? it should appropriately named as the privileged community's voice.
the state goverment is only concerned about changing or renaming of establishments already undertaken by the previous govt,the current govt can thing doing something different, something special for people's welfare and developement of state.people should wake up and stop this madness.
First it was Newly built Legislative assembly Building,followed by Uniform Education system,now it is Centenary library building,what next?How can one man's meat become another man's poison,almost overnight,even though both the dish are drawn out of the same animal(all these structures made out of tax-payer's money).Tamil Nadu politics is not only very strange,but it is also very expensive to the poor tax-payers???
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