After the state school census unravelled a number of irregularities such as ‘ghost’ students and virtually non-functioning schools, a census of libraries conducted late last year has revealed a similar situation haunting public libraries in the state, prompting the administration to either close or downgrade libraries operating arbitrarily.

The state cabinet, in its weekly meeting, allowed the higher and technical education department to downgrade some public libraries since they were found lacking in meeting stipulations like the requisite number of books, access to certain resources and so on. Representation pic