1 AS INTRODUCED IN LOK SABHA Bill No. 132 of 2018 THE CONSTITUTION (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2018 By SHRI TEJ PRATAP SINGH YADAV M.P. A BILL further to amend the constitution of India. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:— 1. This Act may be called the Constitution (Amendment) Act, 2018. Short title. 2. In the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution,— Amendment of the Seventh (i) in List II-State List, entry12 shall be omitted; Schedule. 5 (ii) in List III-Concurrent List, after entry 25, the following entry shall be inserted, namely:— “25A. Libraries, museums and other similar institutions controlled or financed by the State; ancient and historical monuments and records other than those declared by or under law made by Parliament to be of national importance.”. STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS As per the Constitution, the subject “libraries” forms the part of the State List. If the Union Government wants to have a library legislation at national level, it has to amend the Constitution by shifting the item of libraries from State List to the Concurrent List. The Government of India appointed a Committee in the year 1948 to suggest the possibilities of establishing a National Central Library at New Delhi. Dr. S.R. Ranganathan as a member of the Committee prepared “Draft Library Bills for Union and Constituent States”. Later, the Central Government did not take decision to pass a Union Library Bill. Since independence, only nineteen out of twenty-nine States have passed the library legislation through Public Library Acts in their respective States. Due to lack of funds, resources and trained manpower, majority of public libraries in the country are in pathetic condition. The Working Group of Libraries under National Knowledge Commission in its 2006 Report entitled “Libraries: Gateways to Knowledge — A roadmap for revitalisation” recommended that “In order to facilitate the coordinated development of libraries across different sectors and to provide the legislative framework, required legal support and financial backing to the Library Sector, the Government could, in course of time, consider including libraries in the Concurrent List of the Constitution of India. This should be done without in any way abrogating the existing responsibilities of the States towards libraries”. Due to partial and ineffective implementation of State legislation, a National Library Legislation is needed to bring in a robust legislative framework to make India a knowledge society. The Bill, therefore, seeks to amend the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution with a view to transfer entry 12 of List-II, State List pertaining to ‘Libraries’, to List-III, Concurrent List so that the Parliament and the Central Government can also play vital role in the overall development of a National Library Policy, systems and services in the country. The Bill seeks to achieve the above objective. NEW DELHI; TEJ PRATAP SINGH YADAV June 29, 2018. 2 ANNEXURE EXTRACT FROM THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA * * * * * * List II-State List * * * * * * * 12. Libraries, museums and other similar institutions controlled or financed by the State; ancient and historical monuments and records other than those [declared by or under law made by Parliament] to be of national importance. * * * * * * * List III-Concurrent List * * * * * * * 25. Education, including technical education, medical education and universities, subject to the provisions of entries 63, 64, 65 and 66 of List I; vocational and technical training of labour.] * * * * * * 3 LOK SABHA ———— A BILL further to amend the Constitution of India. ———— (Shri Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, M.P.) MGIPMRND—605LS(S3)—24-07-2018..