Library padlocked: ‘The consciousness and conscience of the society has been locked’<\/p>\n
Pressure to open the public library immediately, the government accuses the government of ‘locking the knowledge and conscience’<\/p>\n
Parbati Bhandari, Nepal News Bank<\/p>\n
Kathmandu. The Kathmandu Valley Public Library at Bhrikutimandap is currently closed. KATHMANDU: The government has padlocked the libraries in the Kathmandu Valley’s popular campuses and schools. <\/p>\n
After the Social Welfare Council padlocked the government for not paying 29 million 23 thousand 367 rent arrears till 2082 BS, youths and intellectuals have also been mounting pressure campaigns demanding resumption of rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the closure of the library, those who come to study there are in trouble. Especially for economically weaker and low-income students, the environment for easy and free learning has been lost. <\/p>\n
The Social Welfare Council had padlocked the Kathmandu Valley Public Library at Bhrikutimandap on April 13, 2082 for not paying the rent arrears.<\/p>\n
There has been no discussion on whether to reopen or relocate the library. <\/p>\n
The Council under the Ministry of Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities and Social Security has padlocked all the offices, shops and libraries at Bhrikutimandap on the pretext of not paying dues.<\/p>\n
Although the padlock has been imposed for the protection of public property, implementation of legal obligations and effective management of the property of the Social Welfare Council, the activists claim that in the case of libraries, it is indecent and interference with education. Students have also increased pressure to bring the library into operation immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Writer and librarian Bimal Acharya has demanded the government to bring the library into operation immediately, arguing that students, researchers and the general public have been deprived of their right to acquire knowledge when the library at Bhrikutimandap has remained closed for the past 112 days. He said that the Social Welfare Council had closed the library on April 30 and since then there has been no heed despite repeated dialogues and correspondence with the government.<\/p>\n
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According to him, the library management has sent letters to the Prime Minister and the concerned ministries on April 10 and May 24, but no official response has been received yet.<\/p>\n
He said, “The library owner also wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry and Council. But the government has not responded. “About two hundred readers have been directly affected by the closure of the library,” he said. He said that the public library is the main basis of learning for the students and the general public who are financially weak. He claimed that the closure of the library was an interference on education and access to knowledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Acharya, the library was being operated as a service-oriented organization as per the agreement between the Bhrikutimandap Library and the Social Welfare Council in 2062 BS.<\/p>\n
According to him, there was a provision of paying only 25 per cent of the rent and 75 per cent discount as per the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said that public libraries should not be seen from a commercial point of view and that education, books and knowledge should not be linked with profit.<\/p>\n
According to him, the library being operated with the support of donors, book donation and contribution of various organizations has also put rare books and archives at risk. <\/p>\n
Acharya said that the library is not only a place to read books but also a public place for the exchange of ideas, research, dialogue and social harmony.<\/p>\n
Stating that preservation of the reading culture was very essential for a democratic society, he said that the loss of access to libraries would have a serious impact on the intellectual development of the society. <\/p>\n
Recalling the incidents of banning libraries in Nepal’s history since the Rana era, Acharya commented that the current situation seems to be a recurrence of the same.<\/p>\n
He said the public libraries were closed even when there were leaders who wrote books, read them and understood the importance of education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said that rare manuscripts and historical books could not be recovered if they were destroyed, adding that there was a risk of the books being damaged due to rats, termites and other reasons if the library was closed for a long time.<\/p>\n
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KATHMANDU: Central President of Nepal Students Union (NSU) Karuna Katuwal has called for the immediate opening of the padlock of the public library at Bhrikutimandap and termed it as a ‘lock on the consciousness and conscience of the Nepali society’. She said that the public library is not just a building or a place to store books, but it is a center for developing awareness, conscience and critical thinking in the society.<\/p>\n
She said the closure of the library has affected the learning rights of thousands of students, readers and the general public. <\/p>\n
“A public library is not just a building, it’s not just a bookstore,” she said.<\/p>\n
It is a factory of consciousness, a factory of conscience. Whoever reads a book in the library, acquires wisdom, builds his conscience. She urged the government to bring the library into operation immediately. She demanded the government to manage policy and budget to establish public libraries in all 753 local levels of the country in a sustainable manner. <\/p>\n
Stating that it was the responsibility of the government to operate the public library, she said that closing the library in the name of rent dispute was a wrong step. Activist Manoj Puri has alleged that the locking of the library is not just a building but a lock on knowledge, education and development of a civilized society.<\/p>\n
According to him, on April 30, the Social Welfare Council had forcibly locked the library students by taking them out of the library. <\/p>\n
He said that he defined it as a lock on knowledge to forcibly lock a student who was studying <\/p>\n
. Puri said that NSU has been agitating for different phases of agitation since the beginning demanding the operation of the library.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the Kathmandu Public Library was not a government project but a public institution established by the community for the intellectual development of the society and nation.<\/p>\n
The library has around 50,000 books and two to 300 students visit the library every day. <\/p>\n
Puri said that many people at the policy-making level of the country are themselves aware of the importance of libraries.<\/p>\n
He is the Minister of Finance. Swarnim Wagle is a life member of the library and Prime Minister Balen Shah stressed the need of such resources for his research and foreign minister Sishir Khanal as he was associated with the education campaign. <\/p>\n
Puri said that the responsibility of the state is not to close the libraries but to establish more libraries, support the operation and provide financial grants.<\/p>\n
Saying Nepal lacks separate laws for operation, management, financial resources and operation of the public libraries, he demanded that the government should make clear legal provisions in this regard. <\/p>\n
Similarly, Sajan Tamang said that the protection of public libraries should be the primary responsibility of the state as they are the basis of knowledge, awareness and building a democratic society.<\/p>\n
He said that the reason for the closure of public libraries was not only financial problems but also policy weakness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said that the number of public libraries in Kathmandu is very low and students are facing problems due to lack of adequate public space for studying.<\/p>\n
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He said that many libraries are on the verge of closing due to financial constraints and lack of clear policies.<\/p>\n
According to him, the operation of important public libraries in the Kathmandu Valley has also come under crisis due to financial and policy problems. <\/p>\n
He claimed that most of the public libraries across Nepal are in a dilapidated condition and only a few are in operation.<\/p>\n
He said that it was the responsibility of the government to ensure environment for the citizens to study in an easy manner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tamang said that a four-point demand has been presented to the government on behalf of the campaign.<\/p>\n
First, he needs to repair and reopen closed and dilapidated public libraries. Second, formulate a separate national policy and legal system for the operation, preservation and management of public libraries. Third, there should be a stable and assured budget for public libraries. Fourth, he said that the government should facilitate for the establishment and operation of community-level libraries at the local levels across the country. <\/p>\n
He said that the closure of such institutions has had a negative impact on the reading culture as students with limited financial status depend on public libraries. Tamang also urged the government to reopen the public library in Kathmandu and stressed the need to prepare a clear blueprint of long-term policy, budget and management after that.<\/p>\n
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Member of the library, Tikaram Sitaula, said that the closure of the non-profit study center is a blow to the access to education and knowledge. Stating that the organization has been doing the work of disseminating knowledge and education to the state in a free and non-profit manner for a long time, he said shutting down it was like closing the eyesight.<\/p>\n
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Sitaula said that the institute has been serving as an important place to study during leisure time.<\/p>\n
Stating that the students preparing for various competitive examinations, including the Public Service Commission, have achieved success after studying from the same centre, he said that they were most affected by the closure of the institution. <\/p>\n
He said that it was not appropriate to close the organization on the basis of the government’s non-payment of rent.<\/p>\n
“It is unfortunate that the non-profit organizations that are fulfilling the responsibility of the state should be supported, encouraged and protected,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He expressed the belief that the government would be sensitive to this issue and seek immediate solution as it is an educated leadership. He urged the study centre to be re-operated \u0964 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Library padlocked: ‘The consciousness and conscience of the society has been locked’ Pressure to open the public library immediately, the government accuses the government of ‘locking the knowledge and conscience’ Parbati Bhandari, Nepal News Bank Kathmandu. The Kathmandu Valley Public Library at Bhrikutimandap is currently closed. KATHMANDU: The government has padlocked the libraries in theContinue reading “Pressure to reopen public libraries immediately, accuses government of ‘locking down knowledge and conscience’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":83750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/web-post-2_c876e7d8.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83781,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83780\/revisions\/83781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/83750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}