Heritage library goes dark over political tussle

As night falls on the city, the bustling lanes of Chandni Chowk light up and dot the Old Delhi landscape. In the midst of this glittering lane, shrouded in darkness, is the Lala Hardayal Municipal Heritage Library. A 161-year-old landmark, one of the oldest places for public reading in the national capital, has had no electricity for over 45 days due to the non-payment of bills.

- Paras Singh

In the afternoons, the sun rays filter through the door and cast light upon the first few tables inside the library. But as the winter sun sets, members of the library – mostly students – begin lighting up their corners with phone torches attached to power banks. Some stand on top of tables and hang LED illumination strips from the arches and the rotunda of the historic edifice, angling them in a way that the light falls on the books laid out on the table. This is the only way for the students, who are preparing for competitive exams, to retain their quiet corners in the library.

Apart from this, the library complex’s four toilets don’t function. There is no drinking water. And the 95 staffers haven’t been paid since February 2021. Caught in a political slugfest between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), one of Delhi’s oldest public libraries – home to over 170,000 books – is in a state of sorry disrepair.

HT visited the two-storey library on November 6 and found at least 50 students struggling to study in the dark.

Every day, 19-year-old Afifa Rashid finds a corner in the library at 11am to prepare for the NEET medical entrance exams. “I have paid the annual membership fee of ₹1,200 but this keeps happening. There was a similar power outage due to non-payment of bills in May and June this year. This time we pooled in money to buy torches and power banks so that we can stay here longer every day,” said Rashid.

The students and the staff members rely on paid toilets at the Chandni Chowk Metro station, around 200 metres away, and for drinking water, they head to the Kotwali police station, located behind the library.