KATHMANDU: With a view to enhancing readership among public, Nepal Library Association is going to celebrate the second library day on August 31.

Forming a main organising committee, comprising different organisations related to library, it said that it would also organise weeklong programmes to inculcate the habit of going to library in people.

Speaking at a press conference today, Ashok Thapa, chairman of the main organising committee, said that they were going to organise various programmes such as interaction, blood donation, felicitation, publicity and promotion of library, among others, on different dates to raise awareness over the use of library.

Bhola Kumar Shrestha, president, NLA, said the government was not doing needful for opening library in village areas though library was the main medium to strengthen the foundation of loktantra. "The government is not paying due attention to improve the situation of library in the country."

According to the organisation, there are some 700 community-based libraries and 500 libraries in colleges and universities.

Dasarath Thapa, chief of Nepal National Library, admitted that libraries in the country were in a sorry state largely due to government apathy.

"Though we demanded for central level mechanism to monitor library and related activities, we haven't yet got the central regulatory body," he said. "When we pressed demand for a provision of Department of Library under the Ministry of Education, the government established Library Coordination Department, which is yet to perform effectively."