City libraries short of funds as Palike 'withholds' cess

Public libraries in the City have been struggling hard to pay for periodicals, newspapers and expenses towards maintenance for the past five years as BBMP has not paid the library cess of Rs 360 crore to the public libraries department.

Dr Satishkumar  S Hosa-mani, director, public libraries department, told Deccan Herald that BBMP had to pay them an amount of around Rs 360 crore, which is due for the past five years. Maintenance of libraries had been severely affected due to shortage of funds.

As per rule 30 of the Public Libraries Act, 1985, libraries in the State are entitled to a share of 6% of the total property tax collected by the civic bodies. Of the total library cess collected by civic bodies, BBMP stands first, as property tax collection here is more.

The salaries of the staff and officials are paid by the government, but the department has to rely on the library cess to meet the expenses such as purchase of newspapers, periodicals, furniture, rent, telephone bills, water bills, electricity bills among others. The situation is no different at libraries in other parts of the State.
They are also facing shortage of funds. The state has 6,778 public libraries, of which 200 are in the city.

Hosamani said the libraries can be modernised with state-of-the-art facilities, if they are paid the entire library cess by the civic bodies regularly.

The department has plans to upgrade the libraries, but shortage of funds is preventing the department from moving forward.

Ramachandrappa, chief accounts officer of BBMP, told Deccan Herald that Rs 58 crore was paid to the public libraries department for the financial year 2015-16. He refuted the claim of the public libraries department officials and said the due amount from the Palike was not Rs 360 crore, as they had been paying the department regularly.
DH News Service