A new name, a fresh coat of paint, dozens of young men and women sitting in chaise lounges and reading in a leafy courtyard; the Sri Vattikota Alwar Swamy Memorial City Central Library appears to be a perfect place to sit down with a book. But the quiet of the library at Chikkadpally thrums the unease of the broken promises and short-changing by the government. “What good is a library without new books? We stopped getting new books from 2014. Before that, we used to acquire books worth at least ₹50 lakh annually. Now, books are being bought only on requisition,” says a senior librarian at the library.
Hyderabad has 86 public libraries ranging from massive facilities like the one at Chikkadpally to the modest ones at Shahalibanda to small community libraries scattered across the city attached to community halls to some functioning from hired premises. “Of the 86 libraries, three at Valmikinagar, Muradnagar and Chanchalguda are not functioning owing to problems with the premises. We have three mobile libraries, but they are not functioning too,” says K. Padmaja of City Grandhalaya Samastha. The Monda Market library is functioning from a small premises, and the books have been transferred to other libraries and put in storage.
Ironically, libraries in Hyderabad ought to have been the best in the country as there is a steady flow of revenue. “The GHMC collects property tax (PT) and 8% of that is marked as library cess. Last year, the civic body mopped up approximately ₹1,300 crore as PT that would work out to be ₹104-crore share for city libraries. We can have good libraries with all facilities and latest books. But we get a maintenance fund of ₹15 lakh a month,” says a library official.
Contrary to popular perception, readership and the use of libraries is growing apace. Every day, thousands of young men and women raid the bookshelves or troop into reading rooms of the libraries and spend hours gathering information. The bright blue screen or the buzz of a mobile phone is virtually unknown in the zone. People read, doze, jot down notes or stare into emptiness. “We get about 1,000 visitors every day. Many don’t mark their entry or the number might be higher. We have 29,707 members who pay ₹150 for a lifetime membership. We have 2,24,397 books, we get 101 periodical magazines and during summer vacations, the children’s section works in two shifts to cater to the rush,” says Ms. Padmaja.
City Central Library
A sliver of light amidst the gloom is the fact that the libraries are acquiring books based on the requisition of readers.
“We have a limited budget where we get books once a requisition is made. The library gets it within a month. But this is a far cry from the earlier period where new books costing up to ₹1 crore to ₹ 50 lakh were acquired annually. The practice stopped in 2014,” says a library official.
The grand 128-year-old State Central Library at Afzalgunj fares no better. One of the pioneering libraries when it started as Asafiya Library with the personal collection of educationist Syed Hussain Bilgrami, it presents a dim picture of its past. The library, which had a wooden elevator to move books from one floor to another, has not been painted for the past 11 years. “We are short-staffed. It takes us a month to dust the books from one end to the other,” says a library official. In the aftermath of bifurcation of the State, Telangana got 18 employees of the total 50. Now with 33 districts, the staff shortage has become even more acute across the State with in-charge librarians running the show at many locations; and some libraries have no staff.
Of the 256 sanctioned posts in Hyderabad, only 83 are regular employees, 38 are temporary staffers, and many libraries in the city have no library staff. “We have 12 record assistants running some of the libraries,” informs the library official.
But the situation is much better than 2013 when electricity supply was snapped to the City Central Library for non-payment of dues.
