Ensure physical restoration of library land to Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha: M.V.S. Sarma

Former MLC demands CM and Deputy CM honor promise to restore District Central Library land in Visakhapatnam.

Former MLC M.V.S. Sarma has demanded that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan honour their pre-election promise to restore the District Central Library land, located in the heart of the city at Jagadamba junction, to the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha.

The one-acre library land was restored to the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha in 2014 after a prolonged struggle by the Poura Gandhalayala Seva Samithi (PGSS). After a great deal of further struggle by the PGSS, the control over the land was restored to the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha (ZGS) in March 2022.

Speaking at a meeting on the issue, along with PGSS president B.L. Narayana, here on Thursday, Mr. Sarma said the control was restored only on paper, but physical control remained with the CRPF, which had been in the occupation of the land ever since 2013.

Several representations had been submitted to people’s representatives, including the Chief Minister, various officials, including Principal Secretary (Secondary Education), and the District Collector during the previous regimes in the State, he said.

For the past 14 years, the office of the ZGS and the District Central Library were languishing in two different rented accommodations without minimum infrastructure such as sufficient space for display of books and magazines, drinking water and parking place and washrooms.

Mr. Sarma said there was no dearth of funds for the ZGS as the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) owed more than ₹200 crore to it on account of Library Cess collected by them as part of the property taxes from the citizens.

He said while the ZGS announced that funds were allocated for construction of a new building to house the library, work did not commence so far.