The honourarium given to the supervisors of the gram panchayat libraries must be hiked from Rs 1000 to Rs 3000, opined ZP President M B Chikkanarasimhaiah.

He was speaking after inaugurating the 4-day training programme organised for the supervisors of the gram panchayat libraries by the Department of Public Library.

Supervisors should be appointed on the basis of merit and on the recommendations of the politicians, opined Chikkanarasimhaiah who said that there should be transparency in the appointments.

The premises of the district Library in the city has turned in to a tempo stand, regretted Chikkanarasimhaiah who said that Sir M Visveswaraiah laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Library. The stand needs to be demolished and a compound has to be built, he added. Department of Public Library’s  Director P Y Rajendra Kumar has assured to release Rs 50,000 for this purpose, he said.

  In the current year 2515 gram panchayat libraries will be opened, said Depart of Public Library  Director P Y Rajendra Kumar who spoke on the occasion.

The supervisors of all these libraries will be trained in Bangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga and Belgaum trainings centres, he added.

Rs 2000 crores will be released over a period of 5 years under NKCS scheme for the development of the gram panchayat libraries, briefed Kumar who said that these libraries will act as Knowledge centres were farmers can obtain information on market trends and prevailing rates for their produce.

Kannada books on Web
Around 3000 Kannada books are already available on web, slowly all the books will be made available on the web, said Kumar. The arrangements are being made in this regard, he added.

  The priceless and rare Kannada books are being republished, expressed Kumar who said that 2000 Kannada books were distributed to the outstation Kannada associations.

The honourarium of the supervisors of the gram panchayat libraries has been raised to Rs 1500 from Rs 1000, said Kumar. A proposal to rise the honourarium on the basis of the supervisors experience has been placed before the government, he added.

Books relating to law must be kept in the libraries in order to create awareness about law among rural people, opined ZP Deputy Secretary Badanoor.

ZP vice President Vanjakshamma, Congress leader Nagabhushan Rao, Kempanna, Jayaram, B R Hiremath, B N Munikrishnappa and others were present.