Shut down of Lansdowne Building affects student community

Shut down of the century-old Lansdowne Building has not only affected the tenants doing good business since decades there, but also the student community, as the building was a last stop for used text books.

The small stretch of road was a student's haven to get all their works done at the shops here. Be it Middle school, High School or Degree books all were available here at discounted rate. Even specialised books referred by students of professional courses such as Engineering, Medical, litterateur were available here.

The building housed nine book stalls in which two of them sold exclusively second hand books. Since new books work out to be costly, students prefer used textbooks.

With admissions to Engineering colleges completed 20 days ago, the demand for text books has gone up as there are seven Engineering colleges in the city and the students are eager to procure the text books of this semester and even professional colleges strictly adhere to the academic schedule completing the course in time.

Prashanth owner of Gayatri Book says, “demand for both new and old books is good here. But now, books are lying idle inside the locked shop and we are helpless. Though recently the district administration allowed us to remove the goods stocked inside our shops, the time given was not sufficient as such most of the books are still struck inside. Those which we could bring out has already been sold."

Abudakar Siddiqui of Madina Book House said, “ours being a second hand book stall, a large number of students used to visit our shop to buy and resell the books. Every six months during the start of new semester Engineering students used to throng shops to purchase the books. Our regular customers are still calling to find out when the book stalls will be reopened.”

“We regularly purchase the second hand books at reasonable price here. We always got the book here we sought after just roaming a couple of shops. Now, due to the closure of book stalls we are waiting for the shops to re-open,” says Anirudh a student of NIE College.

The tenants are eagerly waiting when will be the temporary sheds promised by the MCC will be erected. Meantime, this loss of business at Lansdowne building has come as a blessing for other shops, where some students are heading.