Barnala: Reiterating the Punjab government’s commitment to the promotion of education and inculcating reading habits in the people of Punjab, Minister for Higher Education and Languages Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer today said that the Punjab government has proposed new libraries in six villages in District Barnala with modern facilities and rich literature in Punjabi and English.
These libraries will be a befitting tribute to doyen of Punjabi literati like Sant Ram Udasi, Ram Sarup Ankhi and others who rose from land of Barnala.
Minister added, that in first phase around Rs 1.5 crores are being spent on rural libraries of which construction of two libraries will be completed within this month.
Punjab Minister for higher Education and languages Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer added that these libraries will be equipped with good books and infrastructure which will increase intelligence quotient and will be immensely helpful for intellectual growth of the youngsters.
The cost of each library is 25 lakhs, which includes construction as well as furniture and the books. Libraries in 4 villages Pharwahi, Dangarh, Rureke Kalan and Raisar Punjab will be completing soon. He added that the ultimate target is to set up a library at every village so that the people have easy access to sources of wisdom – books.
Deputy Commissioner Punamdeep Kaur added that apart from this, work is going on setting up libraries at villages Badbar and Nangal. She added that these libraries are coming up at panchayat land as well as in precincts of government schools.
ADC (D) Paramveer Singh added that furniture for all these libraries is being bought from IKEA store Bangalore. The furniture will include sofa, chairs, racks for books, tables, reception table etc.
He said that these air conditioned libraries will have computers and Wi-Fi facility to help students prepare for competitive exams. Each library will have both Punjabi and English literature and lists have been finalised that include best of literature – both modern and contemporary.
The literature finalised for these libraries include writings of world writers, Indian authors and Punjabi novelists and poets. Notably, these libraries are enriched with literature of various genres including history, science, arts in the form of biographies, travelogues and political essays.
The books of prominent Punjabi authors Ram Sarup Ankhi, Waryam Sandhu, Veena Verma, Amrita Pritam, Nanak Singh, Jasbir Mand, Jaswant Kanwal, Gurbhajan Gill will be available for reading. Along with this, the writings of famous Indian authors – Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri, P Sainath, Prem Chand and Khushwant Singh will be also available in these libraries.
Interestingly, the books of prominent foreign writers George Orwell, Mark Twain, Stephen Hawking, Salman Rushdie, Frenz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Paul Coelho, Ruskin Bond will be also available in libraries.