CUTTACK: Two days after the Biswanath Pandit Central Library students’ association staged dharna protesting the sharp hike in annual membership fee, mayor Subhash Singh on Monday requested Housing and Urban Development minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra that they be provided free membership and the library maintenance expenses be borne by the department.
In a letter to the minister, Singh said the new state-of-the-art library at Badambadi has G+3 building with central air condition system, high speed Wi-Fi network, 84-seat auditorium, audio-visual conference room and cafeteria with seating capacity for 2,000 readers.
For its management, maintenance and security, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has engaged an agency through tender wherein around 100 staff, including security personnel are working. A sum of Rs 2 crore is estimated to be incurred annually for the purpose including electricity bill and Wi-Fi, he said.
To meet the expenses, CMC had fixed a monthly membership fee of Rs 200 and Rs 500 towards security deposit with an aim to collect Rs 30 lakh annually.
However, students had been staging protest demanding that membership fee be made reasonable, Singh said. “I have also discussed with the agitators and expressed my solidarity with their genuine demands. While the state government is promoting free education from KG to PG, I am requesting to bear the expenses towards management and maintenance of Biswanath Pandit Central Library,” stated Singh in his letter.