New Delhi, April 11 A parliamentary panel has raised concerns about the vacant position of director at the renowned Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna since August 2023, and has sought a report from the Ministry of Culture on the reasons for the delay in filling the vacancy.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture has also suggested to the Ministry of Culture to set a timeline for the completion of the digitization project of the National Archives of India (NAI).
The panel's report, 'Demands for Grants (2026-27) of the Ministry of Culture', was presented in Parliament on March 25.
"During the proceedings, the Committee raised concerns regarding the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library, Patna, where the director's position has been vacant since August 2023 despite the submission of applications for appointment," the report says.
The committee recommended that the ministry should "fill the vacancy of director, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library, within 90 days and furnish a report on the reasons for the delay".
Established in the late 19th century by Moulawi Khuda Bakhsh Khan after inheriting his father's collection, the library was opened to the public in 1891 as the Oriental Public Library.
Declared an institution of national importance by the government of India in 1969, it houses one of the largest and most exquisite repositories of manuscripts and books.
It has been visited by many heads of state, dignitaries, and scholars from India and abroad since its inception, including at least six former British viceroys, Mahatma Gandhi, former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, and four presidents of India.
The library has a wide collection of 21,000 manuscripts and about 2.5 lakh printed books in Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, English, Turkish, and many other languages, according to the Bihar Tourism website.
The collection includes the Tarikh-e-Khandan-e-Timuriyah, a richly illustrated manuscript about the history of the Turco-Mughal conqueror Timur and his descendants (of which the only extant copy is with the library). The library also houses a copy of Lord Byron's Ode to Napoleon and a miniature of the Quran that is 2.5 mm wide.
The full-time director's position at the library on the historic Ashok Rajpath in Patna has been vacant since August 2023.
The culture ministry has also informed the committee about a major digitization project of the NAI, targeting 30 crore pages.
The ministry told the panel that 11 crore pages (approximately one-third) have been digitized and uploaded on the 'Abhilekh' portal, adding that it plans to complete the remaining two-thirds of the work in the next year.
The panel recommended that the ministry should set a timeline for the completion of the project and furnish quarterly progress reports to it.
It also recommended that the ministry should develop standard operating procedures for state archives' coordination, including quality standards for digitization and conservation, to be issued as formal guidelines to all state governments.
The committee also recommended that a strategy should be developed for the meaningful utilization of digitized archival content, ensuring that the digitization effort translates into enhanced access for researchers, students, and the general public.
The ministry may explore integration of digitized collections with educational platforms and the National Digital Library ecosystem, in coordination with the Ministry of Education, to maximize the scholarly and public value of the NAI's digital holdings, the report said.