Bhubaneswar: The chief adviser to the chief minister, R Balakrishnan, Monday said that the State government is soon going to establish a separate directorate for library.

Addressing the State Book Fair Akhyara, Balakrishnan said that even though the State Library Bill was introduced in the assembly in 1972, it was in 2001 the State has promulgated the State Library Act. Now the government is going to set up a separate directorate for library, he added.

The chief adviser said that the Odia Virtual Academy is now making available contents to people in 53 countries of the world.

Acclaimed Hindi litterateur Chitra Mudugal, chief speaker of the third evening of State Book Fair Akhyara, said that even though literature has spread in social media but it has lost its purity of language.

Culture secretary Manoranjan Panigrahi presided over the function while Odisha Lalita Kala Academy president Sudarsan Patnaik, culture director Bijaya Nayak and Kalinga Book Fair’s Renuka Mishra also spoke on the occasion. Milan Ghatuwari anchored the programme.