Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

Community halls to promote reading habit among children

Staff Correspondent

Rs. 81 lakh released for maintenance of halls

IN RAPT ATTENTION: Minister for Primary and Secondary Education and Libraries Basavaraj Horatti watching a video presentation along with children after inaugurating a children's community hall in Dharwad on Saturday.

DHARWAD: With the objective of developing reading habit among children, the Department of Public Libraries will set up children's community halls in all districts of the State.

Inaugurating a community hall at the City Central Library here on Saturday, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education and Public Libraries Basavaraj Horatti said the department had released Rs. 81 lakh for maintenance of community halls.

The Minister said Rs. 7 crore had been released for supplying books to public libraries. A minimum of 300 copies of each book would be purchased, he said.

The Government would set up public libraries in 2,515 gram panchayats. As a step towards helping meritorious students appearing for competitive examinations, books would be made available to them through libraries in 176 taluks, he said Mr. Horatti said Rs. 15 lakh had been released for the construction of a public library at Saptapur in Dharwad at a cost of Rs. 45 lakh. He promised to release the remaining amount within a month. The library in Hubli would be developed into a model library. For the purpose, the corporation building next to Lamington School would be acquired and Rs. 1 crore would be spent on the establishment of the library, he said. He said 35,000 books had been converted into digital format. Mr. Horatti appealed to writers and publishers to provide copies of their books for digitalisation.

Fifty branches of public libraries would be set up in slums and Dalit colonies during the current financial year at a cost of Rs. 3 crore.

Zilla panchayat president Sudha Lingaraddi spoke. MLC Viranna Mattikatti presided over the function.

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