Stacks of old newspapers gathering dust, torn and worn-out pages, and a strong stench of decay hanging in the air hit visitors when they enter the Central Library in Chandni Chowk’s Town Hall.
The former home of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been lying shuttered since 2010, when the civic body moved to the sprawling new Civic Centre complex. The officers and councillors are long gone from the 151-year-old building, but the reference library for employees has been left behind at Town Hall.
Home to about 16,000 books, the library is only visited by municipal employees nearing retirement who need a no-objection certificate (NOC).
The librarian, Pravin Kumar Bansal, says: “Employees from all three corporations come to get the NOC to prove they don’t have any dues. We haven’t been issuing books since the MCD was trifurcated in 2012.”
On Thursday, when The Hindu visited, half of the library was in darkness as the lights had stopped working. The Electrical Department would fix them after Diwali, said the librarian. The first-floor reading room was out of a horror movie – complete with cobwebs and broken furniture. Apart from a handful of employees every week, the library has seen scholars from India and abroad visit to read some of the treasures it houses. A Ph.D scholar from New Zealand recently spent the day looking up books and even helped Mr. Bansal repair some torn books. Among the special books on offer is an original photolithographic copy of the Indian Constitution that came into effect on January 26, 1950. Though its cover is torn and a layer of dust covers it, the book clearly shows signatures of members of the Constituent Assembly, including Jawaharlal Nehru.
Historians say the book cannot be classified as “rare” as it is relatively new compared to some of 19{+t}{+h}century classics that Delhi-based libraries and museums have. But, it is a treasure nonetheless as it features original calligraphy and illustrations.
The North Corporation is now planning on shifting the library to Civic Centre. “We have allocated a large space in the E-Block of Civic Centre. We are in the process of choosing furniture for the library,” said Yogendra Singh Mann, the director of the Press and Information Department.