A library which doesn’t allow members inside

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Even as the state is observing Reading Week, the Aluva municipality which runs a library named after famed literary figure Kuttippuzha Krishna Pillai, refuses to allow members inside the library to pick books of their choice.

The members are livid with the system here. To top it all is the condition of the library which is going from bad to worse.

The library and reading room has its own three-storied building. A lot of avid readers have used the facilities here.

But the number of visitors and readers is dwindling with the contingency staff deployed at the library discouraging the few who go there.

The current practice is to put up a list of all the books in the library in a rack outside the area where the books are kept.

“Once we opt for a book, a member of the staff goes inside, only to return empty-handed. They don’t look for the books. It’s quite discouraging,” said Anil Joseph, a member of the library.

Those who go to the library say that its condition is deteriorating. Layers of dust and cobwebs cover the alleys and the stacked books. “There are around 35,000 books in the library, one-third of which is English.

It was set up on August 17, 1956 in a temporary building by Krishna Pillai and a few others. The library was later named after the literary figure,” said Sathyadevan, former secretary, who was also the librarian.

Latheef Poozhithura, the standing committee chairman in charge of libraries at Aluva municipality said that the members were blocked because of the theft of books.

“However, if the contingency workers are discouraging members, we will review the decision,” he said. However, a few members said that their pleas in this regard had fallen on deaf ears.