Bhubaneswar, Aug. 8: The much-hyped digitisation of the Harekrushna State Library has taken a backseat as the state culture department is still awaiting funds released by the Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation, Calcutta.

The foundation gives financial assistance to various state libraries for development of infrastructure.

A culture department official said that if the foundation failed to release the requisite funds, the department would take up the work on its own.

Last year, the culture department had sent an estimate for digitisation of the library catalogues and other data to the foundation.

But, it was rejected citing that a private party had prepared the estimate.

After that, the department took the National Informatics Centre’s help to prepare the estimate. The centre had given an estimate of Rs 27.53 lakh for digitisation of the library.

The work included purchasing of 30 computers, of which, 10 were to be used for digitisation and the rest for the library’s official work. In June, in a reply to the culture department, the foundation made it clear that it could only render assistance for procuring a maximum of 10 computers along with one server and sought clarification for some of the proposals made by the library in its estimate.

A department official said the delay in execution of the digitisation is mainly due to time consumed by the official communication between the foundation and the department.

The digitisation will facilitate better communication among the library, the foundation and other state libraries, apart from better management of records of more than 1.5 lakh books.

“Every time we write an official letter to the foundation, they ask for certain clarifications. We have been in constant touch with the foundation for more than a year for release of funds, but the long process of clarification has come in the way. Our department has funds for various activities of the state. But if required, we may execute the plan on our own expenses as the digitisation is on our priority list. We are waiting for the foundation’s nod to release the partial funds required,” said deputy director of the culture department P.K. Rath.