KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation’s plan to spruce up the corporation-owned libraries continues to be on papers. The corporation announced the plan eight months back.In March this year, the corporation had laid plans to renovate its five libraries - the K J Herschel Memorial Library at Fort Kochi, L G Pai Memorial Library at Amaravathi, M K Raghavan Memorial Library at Chullikkal, Vyttila Library, and the Palluruthy Library and Reading Room. The restoration project plan involved modernisation of the libraries, building new racks for the books and rebinding torn books. “Most of these libraries are really old and contain rare and very old books. For example, the library in Vyttila was built during the colonial era. If these buildings are not restored on time, we not only face the risk of losing a treasure trove of knowledge but also a part of our own history. Until now, no steps have been taken towards the restoration project,” said a top corporation official. Moreover, most of these libraries do not have permanent librarians and employ people on a daily basis to look after the libraries. “The temporary employees are appointed on a daily wage basis and after each six months, their tenure is renewed,” said the officialHowever, education standing committee, Kochi Corporation chairperson R Thyagarajan maintained that there are permanent librarians at most of the corporation libraries and as for the rest of the libraries a request has been sent to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for appointing permanent staff.“The Corporation cannot directly appoint permanent staff. It can be done only through the PSC. There are also plans to buy more books for the libraries this year,” he added.
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