CHENNAI: Ending the six-year long boycott of the Anna Centenary Library (ACL), school education minister K.A. Sengottaiyan on Thursday announced that the Tamil Nadu government will allocate Rs 5 crore for buying the books for the world-class library.
One of the biggest libraries in Asia situated on 8-acre land in Kotturpuram, the ACL was declared open on September 15, 2010. But for the political reasons, the library was put into the wilderness and no new books or journals were purchased for several years in a row.
Replying to the discussion on the demand for grants for his department in Assembly, minister Sengottaiyan said, "The government will allocate Rs 25 crore to buy new books for public libraries and Rs.5 crore will be given to buy new books to ACL."
He also said the government will set up a huge library in Madurai at the cost of Rs 6 crore.
The government also plans to set up special libraries at eight places in the state. "A special library to showcase different civilisations including Indus Valley civilisation will be set up in Keezhadi in Sivagangai district, music and fine arts library will be set up in Thanjavur, folk art library in Madurai will come up," he announced.
He further said, "Tamil medicine library in Tirunelveli, tribal culture library in Nilgiris and science library in Tiruchy and astronomy and innovative library in Coimbatore and printing technology library in Chennai will be opened."
These libraries will be built at the cost of Rs 8 crore, he said.
The state government is also planning to collect rare books and manuscripts from public and private organisations.
