E-library project hits a block
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, MARCH 31
The next time Chief Minister Digambar Kamat pays a visit to the Margao Municipal library, he may be shocked to find the e-library project commissioned by him last year stuck in bureaucratic delays.
Whether the Chief Minister is aware or not, funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakhs promised by him for upgradation of the municipal library under the Art and Culture scheme is yet to materialise till date.
The e-library project which was commissioned with much fanfare by the Chief Minister has hit a block. While the Chief Minister had stated that citizens using the municipal library can now access any book in the library at the click of a mouse has only remained on paper.
For, out of the 22,000-odd books stocked in the municipal library, only 4000 books have been connected to the e-library. And the process is progressing on a snail’s pace so much so that officials in the know say the project may remain incomplete even after one year of the commissioning.
The reasons are not far to seek. The civic administration has withdrawn the staff drafted for the data entry work, leaving the skeleton staff in the library to carry out the task. An official in the know said the process has hit a block after the two workers engaged for data feeding were withdraw by the civic officer. “How can you complete the work when there is no work force required for the purpose? The manpower has not been restored despite repeated requisitions”, the official said.
Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho, who had initiated the e-grantalaya project, is also unhappy over the state of affairs. “The withdrawal of the manpower has hit the data feeding operations. One can peruse the file to find out who is responsible for the mess”, he said.
Coutinho is also sore over the fact that the funds promised by the Chief Minister has also not come to the civic body. “The civic body had dispatched a letter to the Directorate of Art and Culture within a week after the Chief Minister promised Rs 10 lakh for the library upgradation”, Coutinho said, while lamenting there is no sign of the funds coming to the civic body.
Interestingly, a civic official remarked that given the uphill task facing the civic body vis-à-vis the e-library project, it will take months to put the project right on the tracks.
