India News | Delhi's Hardayal Library Gets New Managing Committee, Councillor Preeti Elected as Secretary

New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) A new managing committee has been formed for the over 160-year-old Hardayal Municipal Public Library here with councillor Preeti getting elected as its secretary, officials said.

This move comes a day ahead of a scheduled meeting of the Municipal House.

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A meeting regarding the formation of the library's new management committee was held on Monday under the chairmanship of Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi, who is also the ex-officio chairperson of the historic library, the mayor's office said in a statement.

The mayor nominated six members for the new committee. Councillors Preeti, Usha Sharma, Punardeep Singh Sahani, Kiran Bala, Mohammad Sadiq and Shagufta Chaudhary were made members, the statement said.

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"After the formation of the new management committee, an investigation will be conducted into the alleged scams linked to the Hardayal Library," the statement added.

The mayor's office added that the library's funds were earlier misused on a large scale, adding that the funds allocated for the salaries of the library's employees were also misemployed.

The statement added that "unqualified people" had been "appointed to important positions" of the library's previous committee.

Councillor Preeti from ward number 217 has been elected as the secretary of the new committee, while Councillor Usha Sharma from ward number 72 is the new joint secretary, the statement by the mayor's office said.

Employees of the library will get their salaries before Diwali, it added.

Mayor Oberoi said now that the new management committee has been formed, the first objective is to give the salaries of the employees due till 2021, before Diwali, adding that the remaining dues will also be released as soon as possible.

In April, Oberoi had assured that the library employees who had not been paid for years would soon get their arrears.

The heritage library in Delhi's Chandni Chowk area was christened as Hardinge Library in 1916 and boasts a rich collection of books in Hindi, English, Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit.

According to the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav website, the governance of the library vests in a governing body called the managing committee, with the mayor as its ex-officio president.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)