The district library in Balangir. Telegraph picture

Balangir, Dec. 20: Thousands of books in the district library here gather dust as local residents rarely visit the library located around 4km from the town.

On a typical day, the library, which was set up in 1980 and is run by the district culture department, hardly sees three or four visitors.

The library initially was run from a rented house in the Radharanipada area of town and was shifted to an abandoned building of the culture department on Titilagarh road. The building once housed the district museum.

Sources said that the library has more than 20,000 catalogued books apart from several thousand magazines and periodicals.

Apart from Oriya books, the library also contains Hindi, English and Bengali books. A lot of books are left lying on the floor because of a space crunch.

Gananath Panda, who visits the library at times, said that it has some books that are difficult to find these days.

“This is the reason why I visit the library. But it is located far away from the town, so it is not possible for me to go there regularly. The library has a number of rare and valuable books. But they lie scattered all over the place,” Panda said.

Swarup Sahu, a student, said he visited the library regularly because he lives close by. “As I live near the library, I visit it regularly. Only three or four people visit the library everyday. Sometimes there are no visitors at all. The library should be in the heart of the town to benefit the town residents,” he said.

Apart from the library assistant, the library also has a library attendant and a night watchman who also works as a sweeper. Wild plants have grown all over the premises of the library pointing to a sorry lack of maintenance.

District culture officer Gautam Nag admitted that the distance of the library the town is what kept the town residents away from it.

“I know that the library is located away from the town and so people don’t come to visit. There is a grant of Rs 20 lakh for construction of a culture building or the Sanskriti Bhawan, which will also house the district library. The problem will be solved once the building comes up,” Nag said.

Nag, who is the district tourism officer, said that he doesn’t know much about the issue as he has taken charge of the culture department only recently.