Now, get your hands on works of Bengal's Chief Ministers at Ultadanga Central Library

Kolkata: The state Mass Education Extension & Library Services department will start a Chief Ministers' corner in Ultadanga Central Library to facilitate research and PhD works on the chief ministers of Bengal starting from Bidhan Chandra Roy to Mamata Banerjee.

The corner will have all information on the works done by the Chief Ministers' during their tenure in Bengal.

"We have already developed 80 libraries in the state as model libraries. The central library at Ultadanga is one of them. We have plans to introduce a Chief Ministers' corner in this library so that students doing research on this subject or related can have access to the works done by the Chief Ministers of Bengal over the years in form of books and similar study materials under a single roof," state minister for Library Services Siddiqullah Chowdhury said at a function on the occasion of 'Public Library Day'

The minister also said his department is taking measures to ensure that 50,000 school students studying in state schools located within 1 km distance of any state-run library get text and reference books from the libraries

"In the year 2018, 31,000 students of the schools, who were in need of text or reference books and had sent requisitions for the same through their respective schools, have been supplied with books from libraries located within 1 km of a particular school. We are working upon extending this facility for a distance upto 2 km and our target is to reach 50,000 students with this service by the year 2019," the minister added.

According to Chowdhury, in a stride to popularise libraries among students and help economically disadvantaged ones in their preparation for competitive examinations, the state is taking possible measures to revamp the 2,480 state-run or state-aided libraries. "We have also given financial assistance to promote as many as 1,455 privately-run libraries. Our aim is to take this figure to 2,500 within a year," he maintained.

Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay of the state Legislative Assembly, who was present at the function, urged Chowdhury to take up the matter with state Education minister Partha Chatterjee and have at least one period a week in state schools for library.

"I hope this will contribute in growing the reading habit of the students," Bandyopadhyay said.

State minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Subrata Mukherjee said in the age of Internet and e-books, keeping the libraries afloat remains the biggest challenge.