PATNA: Bihar’s Purnia district has set a distiction of becoming the first district in the state to have a library functioning in each of its panchayats.
Youth and students living in the rural areas of Purnia have been flocking the libraries and are reading books or going through journals to prepare for competitive and other exams
Purnia, which is an important district in Bihar’s Seemanchal region, has a low literacy rate of 52.09 percent but has now become a bibliophile haven with 237 libraries - 230 in rural panchayats and 7 in urban nagar parishads.
To set up libraries in each panchayat of Purnia, a district-wide campaign- first of its kind in the state also, called the ‘Kitab Daan’ (Book donation) was started in January this year by the district administration. District magistrate Rahul Kumar pioneering this one-of-its-kind initiative, worked for setting up the library in every panchayat with the help of officials of district education department and the locals
Purnia DM tweeted, 1.26 lakh books have been received under the ‘Abhiyan Kitab-Daan’ so far. The highest numbers of 13054 books are avaibale in the 24 Panchayat libraries functional under Banmakhi block followed by 12057 in Amnaourblock’s 24 panchayats. He also said that the administration is adopting various measures to make this initiative sustainable.
Appreciating this initiative, additional chief secretary of education Sanjay Kumar said: “It is a fine initiative driven by D, Rahul Kumar. The education department is studying the initiative with a view to implement all other districts”.