Waiting for bus will not be a tiresome job for the residents in East Mankave anymore. Be it day or night, they can utilise the time reading daily newspapers or periodicals at an open reading corner set up by the East Mankavu Residents’ Association (EMRA) at EMRA Junction bus waiting shed. Besides, a solar light is also arranged in the shed to facilitate reading during the night time.
As many as six Malayalam and English newspapers, a number of periodicals and a few books are now available in the bus stop.
“The reading corner has been opened to offer a different reading experience to the residents here who, otherwise, had very limited facilities for reading. There is only a single library in Mankave, that too is open only from 5.30 pm to 8 pm. Besides, climbing steps to reach the library located on the first floor of a shop also poses difficulty to a number of people in utilising it. While making plans to arrange a new reading facility, the thought of utilising the space in the waiting shed, that would also offer an effective utilisation of time spent in the waiting bus came up,” points out EMRA president M K Beeran.
The bus waiting shed built by EMRA former president V M Sidharthan has a seating capacity of 15, where people can sit and read. Separate boxes for keeping newspapers, periodicals and books are also arranged in the waiting shed. While residents’ association members and the people in the locality are sponsoring the publications, Sidharthan has contributed the solar light as he found it difficult to get an electricity connection.
“People have started making use of the facility. A number of schoolchildren can be seen reading the newspapers while waiting for their school bus in the mornings. Senior citizens also come to the bus waiting shed in the evenings just to read. Meanwhile, we also have plans to offer better facilities which will be finalised depending on the response from the public,” says Beeran.
Former EMRA president P K Ganapathi inaugurated the reading corner the other day, while V M Sidharthan inaugurated the solar light.
M K Beeran presided over the function, in which EMRA secretary K Anil Kumar, treasurer P Chandran and joint secretary M Sundaran spoke.
