Jawaharlal Nehru University vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit on Friday said the proposed relocation of a research library on the campus would not take place.
A new centre that was to take the library’s place will be set up in a different building on the campus, Pandit added.
A circular to this effect was issued by JNU registrar Ravikesh on Friday evening.
Pandit spoke to The Telegraph two days after talks with the faculty of the Centre for Historical Studies (CHS) whose library was being shifted into two different buildings. The library building was to accommodate the Special Centre for Tamil Studies, one among the four proposed new centres for languages that are sponsored by state governments.
Pandit said: “There is no change in the location of the CHS library. I met the CHS faculty the day before and it was resolved amicably. The Special Centre for Tamil Studies moves to the fourth floor of the School of Social Science, block 3 (SSS3) until new buildings come up.”
Last month, the JNU received a loan from the Higher Education Financing Agency for creating new infrastructure.
The move to shift the library was met with protests by student groups across the political spectrum.
On Thursday, Tamil Nadu MP and author D. Ravikumar wrote to the VC asking her to reconsider the relocation of the CHS library and find an alternative space for the Tamil centre. Ravikumar is a member of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, an ally of Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on whose ticket he was elected. The DMK government contributed Rs 5 crore to the Tamil centre last year.
CHS professor R. Mahalakshmi told this paper: “We teachers had a detailed discussion with the VC on August 9 in which we said that we were not informed of the shifting of the library. We reiterated that the library building was created with funds specifically allotted to the CHS by the University Grants Commission. We want it to remain where it is.”
She added: “We were told that it was a temporary measure and were asked to help out… After a faculty meeting yesterday, we decided to offer a few rooms of the CHS in SSS3 for the Tamil centre as a gesture of goodwill.”
The CHS library has been gradually built since the late 1980s with UGC grants for excellence. It now holds 18,000 tomes, including the Central Legislative Assembly debates from 1930 to 1947, the Simon Commission report, and documents of the transfer of power from the British Raj to independent India.
