With its rare collection of books and a separate children section, the decades-old State-run district library in Shenoy Nagar is quite popular among residents in the neighbourhood.
For the past few months, the library has been having a new set of visitors – rats. Some of the regulars say these rats gnaw at the books, which include rare collections.
“I have been visiting this library regularly for over five years and it is quite unfortunate that rats have started destroying the books,” said 66-year-old N. Anjiah, a visitor from Anna Nagar East.
Located opposite the Government Girls School, First Main Road, near Zone-8 (Anna Nagar) office of Chennai Corporation, the library attracts a large of number of visitors from various areas, including Shenoy Nagar, Anna Nagar, Aminjikarai, N.S.K. Nagar, Choolaimedu, Kilpauk, ICF, Shanthi Colony, Tirumangalam and Padi. Every day, on an average, at least 300 visitors come to the library. The library, which falls under the Directorate of Public Libraries, has on its racks over 25,000 books including Tamil novels, comics, poetry, literature, spiritual and general knowledge.
The library also subscribes to newspapers and magazines.
“As most of the visitors to the library are its members, they prefer borrowing books to spending time at the facility. Members also avoid sitting there because of a lack of basic amenities and unhygienic condition on its premises,” said V. Priya, a visitor from Kilpauk.
Long-time residents like Anjiah, along with a group of residents, have spearheaded a campaign including meeting local Corporation officials. The group has highlighted the need for basic amenities and a clean environment on its premises.
One of the major problems is the mound of construction debris dumped at the rear end of the library.
Further, with no basic amenities at the open bus terminus in the neighbourhood, the MTC staff use the vacant space in the library to ease themselves.
Also, passers-by turn the public facility into a public convenience.
For months, the library staff and the visitors have been complaining, about these problems to the assistant engineer (A.E) and junior engineer (J.E) of Zone-8 of the Chennai Corporation, who are responsible for the upkeep of civic amenities in the area.
However, visitors say that whenever they meet the officials concerned, they are given promises.
A Corporation official said “We will soon remove the debris from the premises and provide basic facilities at the library.”
