The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the 135-year-old Central Secretariat Library (CSL), which has no space in the new Central Vista plan despite being the second-largest library in the country, with about 850,000 books.
The CSL wrote to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) seeking alternate space, but this has not materialised. The MoHUA, while responding to certain news reports suggesting that there was no space for the CSL, clarified in a post on ‘X’: “Contrary to a few reports, it is clarified that space for the Central Secretariat Library has been provided for in the Kartavya Path redevelopment plan. The necessary process for construction of the library is underway. The details of the library’s new address were not disclosed in the post.
The library, which operates from the Shastri Bhawan complex housing government offices, was issued an order on September 17 to vacate the premises by September 30 as part of the redevelopment plan. The plight faced by the CSL was recently highlighted in a news report that showed how the library, established in 1891, currently has no space in the new Central Vista project. The library occupies four floors of the Shastri Bhawan complex, covering about 5,500 square metres.
