The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will convert many of its hitherto under-utilized community centres/halls as libraries and reading rooms, an official statement said on Thursday.

Notably, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena asked DDA to provide library and reading room facilities to students, in the wake of the tragic incident of loss of three young lives due to drowning in the basement reading room of a private coaching centre in Rajendra Nagar in July this year.

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Saxena, who had visited the site immediately in the aftermath of the tragedy, met the protesting students there and assured them that he will do everything possible to address the issue of exploitative reading room facilities and charges being faced by them, at the earliest.

The LG had thereafter convened a meeting with the officers of DDA and asked them to identify community centres inside or close to the students’ hubs spread across the city, that could be converted into libraries / reading rooms for use by students.

These upcoming facilities at Rajendra Nagar, Adhchini, Vikaspuri, Sector-16B Dwarka and Rohini will consist of a library, reading rooms with required furniture, a small cafeteria and a small gym, as per the statement.

While the centre at Rajendra Nagar will serve thousands of students in the Rajendra Nagar-Patel Nagar-Karol Bagh coaching hub, the one at Adhchini will cater to the needs of students in the JNU, Katawaria Sarai, Ber Sarai and IIT Delhi area.

The Centres at Rohini, closer to North Campus, Vikaspuri and Dwarka will cater to the needs of not only the students in the vicinity, but also senior citizens, who often find space constraints deterring their basic needs, it said.

As per directions of the LG, the DDA will undertake the responsibility of civil infrastructural and furnishing of these libraries and reading rooms, Universities will be asked to run them, it said.

Books will be sourced through various sources including CSR and philanthropy while the cafeteria and gymnasium will meet the other necessary requirements of students visiting these facilities, it added.