Facelift for State Legislature library

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Legislature library at Vidhana Soudha will be modernised at the cost of Rs 1 crore, said Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy on Tuesday.Speaking after the inauguration of the project, Shankaramurthy added modern computers and networking facilities will be introduced at the library. “A conducive environment will be created to attract more number of elected representatives,” he said.The Karnataka Legislature library has over 49,000 books along with voluminous collection of the proceedings recorded in the both the Houses since its inception. “All these would be scanned and stored digitally,” he said. He added the computerisation work would be completed by May end and information relating to the Legislature, reports submitted in both the Houses and more will be available easily. The upgradation work will be done by a private company.In the future, the Karnataka Legislature library will be linked to both Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha libraries. Admitting that negligible number of legislators utilise the existing facility, Shankaramurthy said there was lack of conducive environment for peaceful reading.“It would be an achievement if the new facility can attract at least 10 per cent of the legislators,” he said.