Students demand extended hours, more seats at Beant Singh Memorial Library in Chandigarh
Library supervisor Arvind Kumar said extending the service hours of the library will require some additional arrangements to be made in terms of added staff and security in the library, which are under consideration at the moment
Even as the library at the Beant Singh Memorial in Sector 42 has become popular with students living in the southern sectors, various students have brought forward concerns regarding the library’s service hours and seating capacity, which have been causing inconvenience to them for a long time now.
The Beant Singh Memorial, inaugurated in 1999, was a joint venture between the UT administration and the Punjab government to pay tribute to the former chief minister of Punjab. The memorial houses a library offering air-conditioned study rooms to students, who come here to prepare for various competitive exams. Students said this has made it one of the most popular study centers, especially in hot and humid weather as it is one of the few public libraries with air conditioning in the area.
Vijay, 31, and Amandeep, 24, are among the group of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants who recently filed a plea to Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari to get the service hours of the library extended from the pre-existing 8 am-8 pm on weekdays to 6 am to 10 pm.
Vijay said the students who have to study for hard-to-crack examinations all agree that early mornings are the most productive for them yet they have to queue up outside the library and wait for hours. “I wake up at 4.30 am every day so I can make it to the library by 5 am and get to the front of the line. Some students who live nearby have started leaving empty bags outside the entrance the previous night and then suddenly show up to announce that they were there before,” he said, adding that the guards also don’t intervene.
Another student, Sandeep, 24, said the sofas inside the library are impractical and it makes more sense to have desks and chairs so that more students can study there. “These can easily be removed and replaced by desks to accommodate a considerably higher number of students,” he added. While the students said they don’t mind even sitting on the floor to study, the library timings must be extended as the exam dates are drawing closer.
Timings extended on weekend
The authorities have, meanwhile, already extended the timings of the library over the weekend. Library supervisor Arvind Kumar said extending the service hours of the library will require some additional arrangements to be made in terms of added staff and security in the library, which are under consideration at the moment. “For the time being, we have made the hours of operation longer for Saturday and Sunday, changing them from 9 am to 6 pm to 8 am to 8 pm, similar to the weekdays,” he added.
He added that replacing the sofas would make the space even more congested for the students. To get rid of congestion, especially in summer, he said renovation of libraries around the city can help divide the footfall.
