Vijayawada: Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan to inaugurate 32nd book festival today

Vijayawada: Enthused by the stupendous success of Hyderabad Book Festival, the Vijayawada Book Festival management has geared up to welcome book lovers from New Year day. After a gap of one year, the city is welcoming book lovers to prove that book reading is not outdated as many people rather wrongly believe. Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan will inaugurate the 32nd Book Festival, which would be attended by Education Minister Audimoulapu Suresh, Endowments Minister Velampalli Srinivas, MLA Malladi Vishnu, Mayor Rayana Bhagya Lakshmi, senior journalist K Ramachandra Murthy, and Hindi Sahitya Akademi chairman Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad.

Revealing the details of the book festival, head of Emesco Vijay Kumar told newsmen that his close friend and Rajya Sabha member Vijaya Sai Reddy used his good office to get permission for organising the book festival at PWD Grounds, which would soon be rechristened as Ambedkar Memorial. He thanked Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Rreddy for giving permission for the book festival in the larger interest of the book lovers. Vijay Kumar thanked the Governor for his generous help of Rs 5 lakh for the book festival.

There would a walkathon with the book lovers on January 4 from Press Club to the Book Festival venue, which would be led by Special Secretary to the Governor RP Sisodia. The walkathon would culminate in a meeting at the festival venue, which would be presided over by Sakshi newspaper editor Murali and Nandamuri Lakshmi Parvati would address the audience.

Referring to the programmes, Book Festival president Manohar Naidu said the birth centenary celebrations of writer and poet late Bala Gangadhar Tilak would be held on January 4; of noted lyricist late Atreya on January 5; of noted artist late Vaddadi Papaiah on January 7; and of late writer Rachakonda Viswanatha Sastri on January 9.

Like every year, there would be a series of literary programmes and book release functions. Manohar Naidu said about 210 book publication firms are participating in the book festival this year.