Perturbed over govt’s dilly-dallying tactics, Muslim man begins work on rebuilding ‘torched’ library

Team Udayavani, Dec 3, 2021, 2:33 PM IST

Months have passed since the state government assured of rebuilding a library, that was set ablaze earlier this year but the promise is yet to be fulfilled.

Frustrated by the delay over the same, 62-year-old daily wage labourer Syed Isaaq, who used to run the library has now begun the task on his own.

The torching incident had occurred on April 9. As many as 11,000 books including Bhagavad Gita, Bible and Quran were destroyed in the fire

The incident had triggered outrage and many people had come forward to assist Syed in rebuilding the library. A sum of nearly 25 lakhs was raised through a crowd funding exercise but the amount so contributed was returned to the donors after the government announced rebuilding the library.

In the interim, people donated several books to Syed for his library. Since the work on the library had not started Syed had kept these books in an open space but the unseasonal rains caused problems.

As per a TNIE report, Syed kept following up the issue with authorities who assured that the foundation stone for the library would be laid soon.

Quoting an official the report states that while the cost of reconstructing the library was to be jointly shared by MUDA, MCC and the library department, MUDA later clarified that they would not give financial aid as they had handed over the land.

Meanwhile a determined Syed has taken the task in his own hands and performed the ground breaking ceremony of the library on Thursday. “I will build a shed, install CCTVs and draw people’s attention again to the library,” he was quoted by TNIE.