KULOB, March 2011, Asia-Plus  -- According to the findings of inspection conducted by a special regional commission, party and Soviet literature in the Russian language constitute 70 percent of library stock in Khatlon’s Kulob region, Khairullo Tohirov, deputy head of the Khatlon culture directorate in charge of the Kulob region, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“On average, local libraries now have only one book per one resident of the region, while in Shouroobod district, the book-to-resident ratio is only 0.5-to-1,” Tohirov said, noting that the more or less acceptable book-to-resident ratio should be at least 3-to-1.

According to him, the useless party and Soviet literature in the Russian collect dust on shelves of local libraries, while they are experiencing an acute shortage of literature in all areas in both Tajik and Russian languages.  “The commission has held meetings on this subject in four of ten districts of the Kulob region and recommended local authorities ways to solve the problem,” Tohirov added.