While the Centre has madeit very clear that movementof inter-State and intra-Stategoods and people shouldtake place without any hassle,the State governmenthas no money and is draggingits feet to start a temporarypublic reading room forthe sake of its citizens!Believe it or not! Even asmall request to start a publicreading room in Mapusahas come under financialscrutiny on account of Covid-19 pandemic.The Director of Art andCulture, Sagun Velip, informedthat the directoratewas already in process toacquire two shops
in a municipalbuilding in Mapusaadjacent to the bus-standand had even written tothe Chief Officer of MapusaMunicipal Council aroundthree months back.But unfortunately andmuch to the consternationof the reading public, thecurrent Covid-19 crisis hasput paid to the prospects ofstarting the reading roomfacility anytime soon.“Due to the outbreak ofpandemic and consequentupon government notificationon rationalization ofexpenditure due to the currentCovid-19 crisis in theState, the decision (to restartthe reading room) hasbeen deferred,” Velip saidin a letter last month.The reading room andthe Athaide Municipal Libraryof the Mapusa MunicipalCouncil were shutdown in September lastyear ostensibly due to theweak building.The sudden closure ofthe library and the readingroom deprived regular readersand users of the onlypublic facility available inMapusa and perhaps inBardez.The Mapusa civic bodyhas handed over the libraryto the Arts and Culture departmentto renovate thestructure and set up a districtlibrary in its place.But before closing thelibrary the authorities concernedfailed to make analternative arrangement tocater to a large number ofchildren, men, women andsenior citizens who regularlyused the reading roomand the library.“We had tried to sortout the matter and allottwo shops in the municipalbuilding near the busstand.But due to the pandemic,the decision hasbeen kept on hold,” saidRyan Braganza, Chairpersonof Mapusa MunicipalCouncil.Now, Goacan co-ordinator,Roland Martins haswritten to the authoritiesconcerned to convene ameeting of the stakeholdersto find an early solution tothe imbroglio so that an alternativearrangement canbe made before the end ofthis financial year.
