Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan urges parents to inculcate reading habit in kids

Vijayawada: Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said libraries played a vital role in the freedom movement of India and helped the freedom fighters to spread the message of struggle and carry forward the movement to reach the goal. He said he is also an avid book-lover himself and a writer of patriotic literature in Odia language. While in prison during the Emergency period and later on, he had availed the great resources for writing books such as Raana Pratap, Maru Bataas, Manasi, etc. in Odia language.

The Governor on Saturday inaugurated the 32nd Vijayawada Book Festival being organised by Vijayawada Book Festival Society here from Raj Bhavan in virtual mode. Speaking on the occasion, he said, "As a writer and a book lover, I strongly appeal to all the parents to inculcate the habit of book reading among children at a young age, which will empower them with the knowledge as they grow up reading books."

He said that the Vijayawada Book Festival provides a platform for book lovers and enthusiasts to gather and browse through more than three lakh books in English, Telugu and Hindi languages, displayed by 200 publishers, participating from within and outside of Andhra Pradesh. The Governor further said he was happy to learn that the Vijayawada Book Festival Society has been successfully maintaining a library for the past 18 years, in addition to holding the annual book festival, by bringing good books and literature within the reach of book lovers.

He complimented the members of Vijayawada Book Festival Society for their efforts in organising the annual 32nd Vijayawada Book Festival on such a large scale with a view to encourage the habit of book reading and suggested that they consider publishing selected works of eminent authors of other Indian languages into Telugu, so that the Telugu reader is exposed to the culture and history of other regions of the country.

Endowments minister Vellampalli Srinivas congratulated the organisers for conducting the Book festival. Central MLA Malladi Vishnu said Vijayawada has a great history of writers and poets. He said the literary works of Vijayawada poets can be made known to others through the book festival.

City mayor Rayana Bhagya Lakshmi, president of Vijayawada Book Festival Society Manohar Naidu, office bearers of the society Vijay Kumar and others participated in the inauguration. Several thousand book lovers visited the exhibition on the first day.