Chennai: Retired IAS officer G Ramakrishnan donated 116 books to Ashok Nagar Circle Library recently. Most of the books are spiritual.
This is not the first time he has donated books to the public library in the locality. As a resident of Ashok Nagar, he has donated books even before the 2015 December floods.
Speaking to News Today, Ramakrishnan said, “I don’t want the books to go waste. So, I gave them to the local library where it will be useful to the people.”
Ramakrishnan had served as Secretary to then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Secretary to Government in Public Department and after his retirement as an administrative officer, went on to serve as State Information Commissioner of Tamilnadu between 2006 and 2010.
Currently he assists his daughter and son who returned from abroad in technology-related sector. The Ashok Nagar Circle Library, with three floors, was affected badly in the 2015 floods and many are voluntarily donating books to the library, said librarian S Murugan.
The public library is go-to place for civil service aspirants and students preparing for competitive exams at the State and Central levels.
“As of now, we have around 28,000 books of various genres and 13,046 books from volunteers which are in good state. Books which are semi-ruined state are not kept with regular books due to their condition,” said the librarian.
The library has various sections like general, kids, women, research, textbooks and civil service. And many people have cleared various government examinations by using the services of the library. Soon, the library will be digitised and it will be easy for the librarians and visitors to know about the availability of books.
“People will even get text message notifications about the status of books,” the librarian said. The library has regular visitors ranging between 1,000 and 1,100 and people who borrow books range between 400 and 450 on a daily basis. The public library has WiFi connection and computers for visitors to browse topics.
The library is managed by four librarians – K Deenadayalan, J Beaula, S Murugan and M Veeramani.
Murugan can be reached at 99447 37500.