Vijayawada: The century-old Rammohan Dharma Pusthaka Bhandagaram, better known as Rammohan Library located near Bandar Locks on MG Road is going through a new phase of upgradation for the youth of Vijayawada.
The library, a two-storied building, built in 1911 is a monument that reflects history of the city and literary works of various authors of the 18th and 19th centuries. However, till recently, the library was left unattended for decades due to lack of financial support. The library at present has over 10,000 books relating to independence, history, science, politics and others written in Telugu, English and Sanksrit languages besides a few Hindi classics.
Ayyanki Venkataramanaiah, who is known as the Architect of Library Movement in India, helped establishing the library along with Suri Venkata Narasimha Sastry. The duo were the first secretary and president of the trust that runs the library. Speaking to DC, library incharge and trust member Mr Ch. Koteswara Rao, said that already a set of books relating to engineering subjects were acquired through donations. “Once a good collection is made we would start a separate section for books relating to education where youngsters can come and utilise them,” he said.
“We repaired the building to an extent and refurbished the books that are about to turn into powder. Hopefully, we would get the building protected with fencing soon,” Mr Rao added.
“We also plan to start skill development classes for interested students and already a couple of senior citizens agreed to serve as mentors,” Mr Rao said.
The treasure house is of historical importance for being visited by Mahatma Gandhi, former President V.V. Giri and many freedom fighters. The first floor of the building has an auditorium, where the legendary actress Savithri has performed her first-ever stage play decades ago. Earlier, it was a centre for literary, social and cultural activity in the district but now just around 50 people visit it each day and go through newspapers.
