Munshi Premchand Library, more famous as CPM office. Picture by Amit Datta

A library and a classroom of a primary school, both in the same compound, have been taken over by the CPM.

Munshi Premchand Library, in Pratap Ghosh Lane (ward 41), is now better known in the locality as a CPM office, while the lock of a room in Shree Sanatan Dharma Vidyalaya (primary section) is opened only to host party meetings.

Both the library and the school were set up by Shree Sanatan Dharma Vidyalaya Trust in 1975. The library is now run by the school, the higher secondary section of which is in Mechua.

The two rooms of the library — which now boasts only 100 books and less than 50 members — serve as the venue of CPM local and ward committee meetings and are also used to stack party literature and banners. The walls are adorned with larger-than-life portraits of CPM leaders, past and present.

Local residents come to the library every evening, not to borrow books but to meet party leaders in a bid to resolve their disputes.

CPM local committee secretary Samarendra Bhattacharya, known as Bacchuda in the locality, did not hide the fact that his party functions in the locality from the library. “There is no party office in the ward. Where do you expect the boys to go and sit? We have set up a temporary office in the library,” Bhattacharya told Metro.

As for the school, he said: “We do use it, but with permission of the authorities.”

The schools authorities, however, denied having granted any permission to the party to use their rooms. “We do not allow anybody to use our premises. But during CPM meetings, the leaders threaten us with dire consequences if we do not allow them to use our rooms,” said headmaster Ram Bharosa Tiwary.

The school authorities have written to the chairman of the Calcutta primary school council and the district inspector of schools (primary), Calcutta, but in vain.

Local residents said CPM cadres took over the library three years ago and then moved into the school.

When Metro asked a local youth about Munshi Premchand Library, he replied: “The place is no longer a library. It’s now a CPM office.”

Local councillor Reita Chowdhury (Biplabi Bangla Congress) tried to distance herself from the matter.

“I belong to a different party. CPM had only lent me its symbol. The office is CPM’s, not mine. I go there only when I am invited to any meeting,” said Chowdhury.

— ZEESHAN JAWED