All set for Ekushey Book Fair [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

All set for Ekushey Book Fair

Local January 31, 2016

Organisers have made all preparations for the month-long Ekushey Book Fair 2016, the biggest get-together of readers, writers and publishers, on the Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the fair, organised by the academy, tomorrow, commemorating the historic Language Movement of 1952.
Bangla Academy director general Shamsuzzaman Khan at a briefing on Saturday assured that foolproof security measures were taken to ward off any subversive activity during the fair.
He, however, urged all publishers, intellectuals and writers to travelling to and from the fair cautiously, keeping in mind two previous killings. Writer Avijit Roy was killed during the last year’s book fair and publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon in October of the year.
Plainclothesmen will assist the police and the Rapid Action Battalion personnel in maintaining security at the fair and there would be two additional RAB camps — one at Doyel Chhatar on the south and the other opposite the TSC on the north of fair premises.
The fair organising committee member secretary, Jalal Ahmed, said in the opening ceremony prime minister would launch academy’s Adhunik Bangla Abhidhan [Modern Bangla Dictionary].
The prime minister will also hand over Bangla Academy Literary Awards 2015 to its recipients at the inaugural ceremony.
This year, a total of 651 stalls have been allocated to 402 publishing houses and organisations to sell and exhibit their books and publications.
The stalls for the mainstream publishing houses have been placed inside the Suhrawardy Udyan while government organisations and the Bangla Academy would be inside the Bangla Academy compound.
Besides, there will also be the little magazine corner on the Bangla Academy part while the children’s corner on the Suhrawardy part.
The fair time has been curtailed by one hour — it will now open at 3:00pm and continue till 8:00pm. Till last year, it was between 3:00pm and 9:00pm.
On holidays, the fair will run from 11:00am to 8:00pm. On February 21, however, the fair will open at 8:00am and continue till 8:00pm. There will be hours dedicated to children.
This year, regular discussions will be focused on Bangla Academy’s contribution as the academy will be observing its 60th founding anniversary.
The academy will hold an International Poetry Festival on February 3, in which poets from Slovakia, Morocco, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, India and Bangladesh are expected to participate.
On the day, the publishers were seen giving last touches to their stalls which will have books ranging from children’s classics to novel, poetry and fiction, essays and research works and others.
Books published by Bangla Academy will be sold at 30 per cent discount while other organisations will offer 25 per cent discounts on their books at the fair.
Holding of the fair on the Bangla Academy premises began informally in 1972, but it became institutionalised in 1978. The fair was named then Amar Ekushey Granthamela and a guideline for it was formulated in 1984.
Apart from Chittaranjan Saha Smriti Purashkar and Munier Chowdhury Smriti Purashkar for the best publisher and three best books, Rokonuzzaman Khan Dadabhai Smriti Purashkar and Qayyum Chowdhury Smriti Purashkar will be given for the best children’s book and stall decoration this year.