One of the driest places in South India, Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh, will soon get a library housed in the district police administrative building. This library will especially keep study materials of competitive exams like the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam and state civil service exam for young aspirants who want to crack these exams for a good career.

Speaking to Indian Masterminds, Superintendent of Police (SP), Dr. Fakkeerappa Kaginelli, whose idea it was, said the library will assist the new generation with good educational facility for clearing the tough competitive exams.

NEED FOR A LIBRARY

Explaining the initiative, the IPS officer, who is also a doctor, said that Anantapur comes under the most backward and remote districts of Andhra Pradesh and selection rate in exams like UPSC is very rare from this district. “People who are preparing for competitive exam have to either visit Hyderabad which is five to six hours away from the district or they have to visit Delhi for receiving good guidance for the exam. Therefore, to make people aware about competitive exams like UPSC, I thought of having the resources available at their doorsteps in district headquarter, Anantapur,” he said.

COLLECTING MATERIAL

It took around three months to get the study material, previous year’s question papers, and other relevant sources from some of the best institutes in Hyderabad, Delhi, etc.

Dr. Fakkeerappa talked about the efforts: “It was two to three months of hard work to collect all the study material, notes from digital platforms and question papers from various coaching centres. After this, we purchased some logistical support like study tables, chairs, etc. We are also planning for a digital library so that we have 15 to 20 digital screens where people can study the material digitally. We will also provide hard copies of the same.”

The officer has taken care to make available daily newspapers like The Times of India, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, etc. in the library premises.

 “Initially the library is being opened for the police families and their children only as it has a capacity of catering to around 100 students. The library will be functional at all times and, depending on the demand, I will extend it to the general public also,” he informed.

ROPING IN MENTORS

The IPS officer revealed that he is also planning to rope in successful civil servants of the district to guide the aspirants by conducting workshops where the students can connect with the officers personally, either offline or online.