Tamil Nadu has withdrawn Jayanthi IAS from her additional charge as director of the Public Libraries Department after allegations of irregularities in book procurement at the recently opened E.V.R. Arivulagam in Coimbatore, according to a report by Dinamalar. Shajeevana IAS has been appointed as the department’s new director.
The allegations centre on books acquired for the Coimbatore facility. The report says that books prepared under the names of fictitious authors were allegedly purchased at high prices and placed in the library. More than 2,000 books are reported to contain literary errors, historical inaccuracies and incorrect information.
The reported irregularities have raised questions about how titles were selected, assessed and purchased for a major public library facility. Public libraries operate as state-supported knowledge institutions, making the accuracy and provenance of their collections an administrative as well as public-interest concern. The report, however, does not provide details of the procurement contracts, vendors, purchase values or the officials involved in approving the acquisitions.
The Tamil Nadu government has decided to form a special committee to investigate the matter, Dinamalar reported. The committee’s stated purpose, as described in the report, is to examine the allegations relating to the Coimbatore facility and the procurement of the books found there.
The issue may extend beyond Coimbatore. Complaints have also been raised about books in the Kalaignar Centenary Library in Madurai and libraries in Avadi, according to the report. The supplied report does not establish whether the complaints involving those libraries concern the same procurement process or have been independently confirmed.
Jayanthi was serving as chairperson of the Teachers Recruitment Board while holding additional responsibility as director of the Public Libraries Department. The government has now removed her from the public libraries post. Shajeevana IAS has been appointed to take over as the department’s director.
The administrative change places the department’s procurement and collection-management systems under scrutiny. The next significant step is the special committee’s investigation, which is expected to establish the scope of the alleged purchases and determine whether similar issues affected other state-run libraries. Details of the committee’s composition, terms of reference and findings were not provided in the report.
