HC directs Central Library curator to update progress of AC repairs

Panjim: The Bombay High Court in Goa on Monday directed the curator of the Central Library to file an affidavit to apprise the court about the progress on the contract awarded for repairing air conditioners.Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on non-functioning of air-conditioners, the court asked the curator to consider the notes/suggestions submitted by amicus curiae advocate Ishan Usapkar.

Also, the contractor must inform that the Court is monitoring the matter and all efforts will be made to complete the repair work within the time frame of three months.

Advocate General, Devidas Pangam, told the court that the suggestions presented by the amicus curiae would be considered and replied to on the next date of hearing on February 5.

He said the contractor has been asked to repair the air conditioners within a time frame of 90 days and the air conditioning work will be completed by March 2024.

AG Pangam further said that necessary steps will be taken for formation of Goa State Library Council and Goa State Library Development Cell. During the hearing, a division bench of Justice Mahesh Sonak and Justice Valmiki SA Menezes sought feedback from the curator on the progress regarding their formation.

Pointing out that the curator has filed an affidavit inter alia on the issue of collection and utilization of library cess, AG Pangam said that due to the non-functioning of the air conditioner till date, no books, manuscripts or other documents have been found. Have not been damaged.

He informed that the process of digitization of old and rare books and documents is going on and a continuous process has been constituted for large and separate cells.

So far 2,43,834 pages of old and rare books have been scanned and large scale digitization of old and rare documents/records is proposed and will involve M/s Info Tech Corporation of Goa Limited (ITG). For this project. Government has also approved to opt for Document Management System (DMS) of M/s ITG for uploading scanned date/documents. Once these documents are scanned they will be hosted on the in-house server of Goa State Central Library. He also mentioned the steps taken for preservation, conservation and maintenance of old and rare books in the Central Library.