Karnataka govt donates over 8,000 books to Mysuru man who lost library in fire incident

Karnataka govt donates over 8,000 books to Mysuru man who lost library in fire incident
on Apr 27, 2021

The Public Library Department of the Karnataka government has decided to donate as many as 8243 books to an economically underprivileged city worker who lost his library in Mysuru to a fire incident earlier this month, state Education Minister S Suresh Kumar Tuesday said. On April 9, a fire destroyed hundreds of books, including Kannada copies of religious scripts like the Bhagwad Gita and Quran, that had been collected by 62-year-old Syed Ishaq at his library in Shantinagar area over the last ten years. “The Public Library Department would provide 8,243 books to Syed Ishaq’s library, which fell prey to the mischief of the miscreants,” Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said. Kumar said a proposal was sent to Kolkata-based Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation to support Ishaq’s library. “This foundation from Kolkata, which works under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Culture, would be able to offer good support to Ishaq’s library,” the minister said. On April 17, the Mysuru City Police arrested a 35-year-old man in connection to the incident. City Police Commissioner Chandragupta said the man was arrested for carelessly throwing a matchstick after lighting a beedi which led to the outbreak of the fire near the library. The police added that the accused, identified as Syed Nasir, had returned home next to the library in an “inebriated state after a fight with his mother and brothers”. “He (the accused) had lit a beedi before throwing the burning matchstick on the furniture and cushions kept in the open outside a sofa repair shop adjacent to the library. This led to the fire which destroyed the library,” he said. Officials who investigated the probe had also clarified that CCTV visuals from the area helped them ascertain the reason behind the fire. Source: indianexpress