The 41st Agartala Book Fair begins friday at Hanpania International Fair premises. Chief Minister Professor (Dr.) Manik Saha will inaugurate the 41st Agartala Book Fair at 5:30 pm. People’s Republic of Bangladesh MP Pran Gopal Dutta, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Ratanlal Nath, Tourism Minister Sushant Chowdhury, People’s Welfare Minister Bikash Debbarma, AMC Mayor Deepak Majumder, MLA Ramprasad Pal and MLA Meena Rani Sarkar will be present as honored guests at the inauguration ceremony. Chief Secretary JK Sinha, Secretary of Information and Culture Department will be present as a special guest. PK Chakraborty and Arif Mohammad, Assistant High Commissioner of Bangladesh Assistant High Commission office in Agartala will be present.
This time the main theme of the 41st book fair is ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam’. This year there will be 176 stalls in the book fair. It also has 13 minority language stalls. State publishing houses have 82 stalls, out-of-state publishers and booksellers have 79 stalls. The number of stalls of publishers and booksellers of Bangladesh is 15. Apart from publishers and booksellers from Tripura, publishers and booksellers from Kolkata, Silchar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bangladesh will have stalls at the book fair. The 13-day book fair will be open daily from 2.30 pm to 9 pm. Book fair will be open from 2 pm to 9 pm on holidays. 10 percent discount will be given by the book sellers for the buyers at the book fair.
Like the previous book fair, this year’s book fair will also be given various prizes. Atal Bihari Vajpayee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Solidarity Award for Outstanding Contribution in Social Field will be presented. Dhirendra Krishna Memorial Award, Salil Krishna Memorial Award, Sachin Debbarman Memorial Award, Kalikingkar Debbarman Memorial Award, for outstanding contribution to painting, Bengali and Kakbarak literature, music, classical music, short stories published in Bengali and Kakbar, drama, and folk culture respectively. Bhishmadev Smriti Award and Lalan Award will be presented. Various cultural programs are organized at the book fair every day from 6 pm. Apart from the artists from the state, artistes from eight states of North Eastern region including Sikkim and Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Bangladesh will participate in the cultural programme. Discussions, Book Releases, Poetry Conferences, Memoir Releases, Quiz Competitions etc. are also organized in the book fair. Free bus services have also been arranged from different parts of Agartala for the transportation of book lovers to the book fair.