New Delhi: When Naveen Pawar joined in the early 2000s, the Hardayal Municipal Heritage Public Library in Chandni Chowk was always buzzing with students, teachers, and retired Armymen. Panwar is now acting librarian, but the heritage building a mere relic of the past, plunging into greater disrepair with each passing year. Books decay on the racks, students bring their own; monkeys frequently tear apart wiring; and thieves make away with the refrigerant piping of air conditioners to extract valuable copper from it.
Even computers on the second floor of the head branch lie unattended. Students bring their own gadgets—all they need is free, undisturbed Wi-Fi.
Complaints about non-functional air conditioners, patchy Wi-Fi or availability of drinking water are a daily affair.
“The kotwali thana (police station) provides the library water for free,” Akarsh Kumar, a student at Zakir Husain Delhi College who joined the library two months ago, told ThePrint.
Staffers too have their set of complaints. Between 2021 and 2023, the library received no financial support from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). As a result, salaries weren’t paid.
“It’s easy to collectively say three years, but each day that we spent without salary continues to haunt us even today,” said Anita Gupta, a former acting librarian of the Mayur Vihar Phase 2 branch. “The 2022 to 2024 disturbances in funding made my life difficult,” added Gurmeet Kaur who retired last April after having worked at several of the library’s branches for a total of 36 years.
“Distorted internal dynamics, repeated complaints of irregularity and mismanagement of funds from the library compelled MCD to restrict its funding,” a senior official from the MCD’s community service department, which deals with the library, told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
MCD has called for an audit, the official said, adding, “Funding is for the library; it includes salaries, but funds should also be used for maintenance. Funds due for the last three years being released now will pay salaries only, what about the funds that should be secured for management?”
Staffers ThePrint spoke to confirmed that the amount owed to them as salary for a 20-month period was released May and July this year. The remaining amount, which they said was Rs 3.93 crore, was to be released by 14 August, according to a direction of the Delhi HC in Mukesh Sharma & ORS vs Hardayal Municipal Heritage Public Library & ANR.
Tension between staffers and the management had come to a head on 30 June, 2023, when staffers staged a protest to demand payment of salaries. Initially, the protest was to last for only seven days, but it continued for 17 months, either outside the library or at Jantar Mantar. According to one staffer, seven staff members were terminated during this period and salaries owed to them struck off.
These seven staff members, the staffer added, are yet to receive their salaries for those 17 months. The year before staffers staged a protest to highlight non-payment of salaries, the library management had also come under fire from Sanjay Gehlot, chairman of the Delhi Commission for Safai Karamcharis who in a Facebook post on 11 March, 2022, claimed 16 safai karamcharis had been told they were no longer regular employees of the library.
Anil Kumar, a safai karamchari at branch 16 in Pitampura, told ThePrint that he has been with the library for more than 30 years, but is still a contractual employee. Kumar moved court and a lower court ruled in his favour, but the case now hangs in the Delhi High Court.
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And how they vanish
Established in 1862, the Hardayal Municipal Heritage Public Library in Chandni Chowk, with fans dangling from the high ceiling, was witness to the freedom struggle, birth of Independent India, its political awakening, liberalisation of the economy, and all in between.
Named after freedom fighter Lala Rudra Dayal Mathur, its branches in Delhi are gradually fading into oblivion. Of 38 branches at one point in time, only 24 remain.
The branch in Rohini Sector 18-19 is a case in point. Its abandoned building is now being used by an NGO, which deals with children with disabilities. A volunteer from the NGO said the building had been abandoned after COVID-19 and BJP MLA from Rohini Vijendra Gupta, after consulting with those concerned, granted the NGO permission to use the building.
In June 2023, the building was handed over to the NGO along with chairs, tables and four almirahs filled with books, which continue to remain there.
Other branches of the Hardayal Municipal Public Library aren’t doing too well either.
Puneet Kumar has given 23 years to the branch in Shalimar Bagh, which he now manages. The library has eight ceiling fans, but only three are in working condition. Similarly, of the 7-8 tubelights, only two are functional.
The branch has a grand total of four students as registered members. Rajneesh Gola, a staffer at the Rajouri Garden branch, says the library had no drinking water or air conditions when he joined. Gola managed to get a water purifier installed and had to bring in a cooler from his residence, while another colleague had to donate a second cooler.
All things considered, the surviving branches of Hardayal Municipal Public Library are still home to 1.7 lakh books, the oldest dating back to 1643.
Riju Chanda is an intern with ThePrint.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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