company has set up a reading room in its labour accommodation in Muaither, which houses more than 250 workers of different nationalities. Q Tec managing director Abdul Rasheed said though his company’s reading room is a modest facility, the response has been really encouraging. Initially, besides Gulf Times, some of the dailies in Malayalam, Sinhalese, Tamil and Bengali languages are made available at the reading room. “We are exploring the possibility of making available more language newspapers for our workforce, mainly drawn from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,” said Rasheed. The decision to set up a reading room for workers was taken at a meeting held to commemorate the World Reading Day celebrations in June, he said. The formal opening ceremony of the reading room is expected to take place after the Eid. Company official PM Ganesh said now-a days most people have a tendency to ignore reading and restrict themselves to watching television shows in the evenings. “However, with the launch of the reading room in our camp, a slow change is taking shape among the inmates,” he said. The Rayyan unit of the Indian Islamic Association (IIA Qatar) has agreed to donate furniture and books to the library, the official said. The company officials said the workers are in touch with different expatriate forums and Asian expatriate schools to secure more publications, including novels and periodicals. The firm is also planning to start a mobile reading room for workers of some of the neighbouring camps, which would function in the weekends. A local cultural forum has agreed to support the innovative move.

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