Rainwater seeps through the roof and accumulates on the floor of that section of the library that houses 55,000 rare books, some dating back to even as early as 1648. Gaping cracks on the walls, dust settled on the cutleries used by legendary poets like Michael Madhusudan Dutta and tattered clothes being dried up on its rear railings give no idea that this building is a piece of history and a literary treasure.

President Patil will attend the function on August 24 which also happens to be the 200th birth anniversary of the library’s founder Jaikrishna Mukhopadhyay. On the occasion, she will be accompanied with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and other dignitaries. This will be Patil’s first visit to the state after she was elected the country’s first woman President.

Built in 1859 by Mukhopadhyay, who was then the zamindar of Uttarpara, the library was taken over by the state government in 1964. Mukhopadhyay was also an educationist and social reformer. He was the first signatory of the proposal sent to the then Governor General William Bentinck by Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar where the British Raj was urged to enact the law for widow remarriage.

But today, Mukhopdhyay’s library that houses 1.65 lakh books — 55,000 of which are rare ones — is in urgent need of repair work. “We get scared when it rains because the roof may crumble down anytime,” said one employee of the library on the condition of anonymity. In 1998, the library authorities asked the state government to grant it the status of a heritage building. But it took a decade for the state government, January 2008, to accept the request. Two years ago, the state government had allotted Rs 16 lakh for the repair and renovation project of the building but that money was never utilised and was returned back, as the PWD which was entrusted with the responsibility failed to do it.

“They started working but soon problems sprouted and they gave up,” said one employee. The authorities say that in spite of the odds they are trying their best to preserve the books.

“The books have to be preserved properly. If they are damaged it will be a colossal loss to the nation. We have also been demanding that the library be given the status of national importance by the central government,” Swagata Das Mukhopadhyay, the librarian, told The Indian Express.

Shantashri Chatterjee, the MP from Hooghly, said: “We are

trying our best that a bill is introduced in the Parliament to bestow the status of Centre of National Importance on the library. We will mention this to the President during her visit.”

The history of the library is replete with associations of great men. Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Reverend James Long, Swami Vivekanand, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bidhan Chandra Roy, are just a few of the great men who paid visits here and even used it for references.