Karnataka Govt To Rebuild Library, Torched by Miscreants, Set Up by Drainage Cleaner Syed Ishaq in Mysuru
Bengaluru, April 27: After scores of people from across world generously contributed around Rs 29 lakh on a fundraising website, the Karnataka government on Tuesday announced to donate 8,243 books to a free library run on a government land in Mysuru by 63-year-old drainage cleaner Syed Ishaq. Many people have come forward to rebuild the free library run by Ishaq, contributing a whopping sum of Rs 29 lakh within a matter of days.
Ishaq, an illiterate drainage cleaner, always dreamt of contributing in his own way to the society in a constructive manner by setting up a library in a locality where poor children reside in slum areas. To his credit, he was able to collect 11,000 books, including the Bible, Gita and Quran. But they were torched by miscreants on April 9. Mysuru: Public Library, Run by Muslim, Set Ablaze by Miscreants, Copies of Bhagavad Gita, Quran, Bible Burned.
The moment his story was flashed by media outlets, help started poring in from across the world. Karnataka Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar was the first one to offer help to rebuild the library and following his efforts, the Karnataka Public Libraries Department has now come forward to donate 8,243 books. “The Public Library Department would donate 8,243 books to Syed Ishaq’s library, which fell prey to the mischief of the miscreants,” Kumar said in a statement.
The minister added that he instructed the officials concerned to provide books to Ishaq soon after getting the information that his library was torched by the miscreants. Kumar said a proposal has also been sent to the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation in Kolkata under the Union Culture Ministry to support Ishaq’s library.
A drainage cleaner, Ishaq’s love for books culminated in the creation of his own library in a slum area for the poor people living in the vicinity of his residence. He also laid emphasis on popularising the Kannada language.
Meanwhile, Fathaheen Misbah, who had launched an online fundraising initiative on popular crowdfunding site Ketto.org to help Issaq rebuild his library last week, took to Twitter to announce that the money contributed will be returned to the donors.
“As the (Karnataka) government has come forward and taken it upon itself to execute this project, based on donor requests, we will be returning the valuable contributions to all the donors. We have sent an update to @ketto yesterday, who are checking the legalities,” she tweeted.
(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on Apr 27, 2021 11:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).
