The Mysuru City Library Authority felicitated Syed Ishaq, who had set up a library out of his own funds in Rajiv Nagar, at its meeting in the city on Friday.
Mr. Ishaq was a special invitee to the meeting of the Authority held at the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) office to approve the decisions taken by the MCC Commissioner Shilpa Nag, Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) Commissioner D.B. Natesh and Deputy Director of City Central Library Manjunath B. to construct a full-fledged library at the spot, where the library set up by Mr. Ishaq was destroyed in a fire last Friday.
The Authority, responding to a request from Mr. Ishaq, also promised to provide a temporary job to one of Mr. Syed Ishaq’s children in the library. “We make temporary appointments at different libraries and provide staff an honorarium of ₹6,000 for six hours of work. We can provide the same to either his son or daughter”, Mr. Manjunath said.
Already, the officials have assured Mr. Syed Ishaq that a hall in the proposed library will be named after him and he will also be given an honorarium from the interest accruing on the deposit of the surplus funds received in the form of donations.
The officials have decided to take up construction of a library on about 5,000 sq. ft of land, which MUDA will make available for the library project. Already, Nirmithi Kendra, a Government agency, has been entrusted with the task of preparing a plan and estimate for the library project.
“We are planning to start work on April 23, which is also the World Book Day”, he said. Construction of the library building will be taken up from the funds donated by the general public. In the event of shortage of funds, the MCC will chip in, Mr. Manjunath added.
While Mr. Ishaq said he will be handing over to the authorities the funds he had received in the form of donations, Mr. Manjunath said the authorities had opened an SB account for collecting donations.
The Karnataka Publishers Association has promised to donate about 5,000 books and furniture to the library, Mr. Manjunath added.
