Gojra MC library in a bad shape.

Byline: Tariq Saeed

TOBA TEK SINGH -- The Gojra municipal committee (MC) library has been in a dilapidated condition for the last few years.

The library, once housing a large number of books, could not regain its lost glory despite the efforts of the TMA elected body to repair the building in previous years.

According to former TMA chairman and now PML-N MNA Khalid Javed Warraich, he had approached the higher authorities repeatedly for the renovation of the library building and preservation of rotten books but the government never provided funds to the TMA.

An old member of the library said he was a frequent visitor to the library but all previous administrations of MC and TMA failed to reconstruct the 74-year-old building or replace it with a new building.

Local literary person Malik Amjad Islam said he and several other people used to visit the library to read newspapers and books despite the fact the walls and roof of the library were in a dangerous condition.

The MC record showed that the library was built on Aug 9 in 1946 which had a number of rare historic books but after the death of librarian Baoji Saeed Shibli in 2003, no qualified librarian was posted here. The library had 3,900 Urdu and 561 English books and of them, 50 books were missing.

For the last 11 years, no new book has been added to the library.

Visitors complain that there is no washroom or drinking water facility...