MAPUSA
Offering a big relief to senior citizens and locals, the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) has finally decided to temporarily introduce the facility of a reading room in Mapusa from December onwards.
The reading room will be located at the entrance of the old municipality building.
MMC Chief Officer Kabir Shirgoankar informed that the Director of Arts and Culture has agreed to the plan and by next month, the reading room could be ready.
“The art and culture department will set up a state of the art library in the old municipality building in Mapusa. That facility may take some time. Till then, we will start a reading room at the entrance of the old municipality building,” said Shirgaonkar.
He said the reading room will be a temporary set up which is expected to start from December onwards.
It may be recalled the reading room and the Athaide Municipal Library of the Mapusa Municipal Council were shut down in September last year ostensibly due to the weak building.
The sudden closure of the library and the reading room deprived regular readers and senior citizens the only public facility available in Mapusa and perhaps in Bardez.
The Mapusa civic body has handed over the library to the Arts and Culture department to renovate the structure and set up a district library in its place.
But before closing the library, authorities concerned failed to make an alternative arrangement to cater to a large number of children, men, women and senior citizens who regularly used the reading room and the library.
