VIJAYAWADA : Creator of `Budugu', a Telugu cartoon character, Mullapudi Venkataramana, will inaugurate the 17th Vijayawada Book Festival at Swaraj Maidan Grounds on January 1. Krishna district Collector Navin Mittal will preside over the inaugural function, while city Mayor Tadi Sakuntala will be the special guest.

Symposiums

The function will be followed by a symposium on `literary works of Buchibabu' in which critics -- Peddhibhotla Subbaramayya and Sripathi -- will review the works of the late Buchibabu.

Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde will be the chief guest at the valedictory function of the exhibition to be held on January 11. Higher Education Minister Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao will preside over it.

Symposia

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, president of the Vijayawada Book Festival Society Ravikrindi Ramaswamy said the venue of the book festival would be named after Jagadishlal Jetly, founder of Asian Educational Society and publisher of several important books, including Krishna District Manual.

The dais, on which symposia on Telugu literature and release of books would be organised, was named after Buchibabu.

Two hundred and thirty stalls were being put up to accommodate 106 participants in the 11-day exhibition, one of the biggest book fairs in the country. For the first time, Gorakhpur-based Geeta Press, Vignan Prasar and Magna Publishers were participating in the festival, he said.

Other programmes

The society would celebrate the birth anniversaries of freedom fighters -- Vavilala Gopalakrishnaiah and Puvvada Seshagiri Rao -- on the book festival grounds on January 3 and January 10 respectively.

Finance Minister K. Rosaiah would participate in Vavilala Gopalakrishnaiah's birth anniversary while Avanigadda MLA Mandali Buddha Prasad would be the chief guest at the birth anniversary of Puvvada Seshagiri Rao.

Book lovers from the city would take out a `walk for books' from Press Club at Gandhi Nagar to the venue of the book fair on January 4.

Special event

Recipient of Sahitya Academy award `Ampasayya' Naveen would lead the rally while Commissioner of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation Natarajan Gulzar would flag it off.

Mr. Ramaswamy said that the society would conduct `Chirasmaraneeyulu', a special programme to recall eminent writers from the city on January 5.

Senior journalist C. Raghavachari would speak about late Mahidhara Rama Mohana Rao and Ms. Tadi Sakuntala would recall the services of late Mahidhara Nalini Mohan, while novelist Yandamoori Veerendranath would speak about Kommuri Venugopala Rao and cine artiste Gundu Hanumantha Rao would speak about `Aruna' Babu Rao in the programme.

Several competitions would be conducted for students at `Pratibha Vedika' from January 2 to January 10.

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