35th Malda Book Fair inaugurated, on till Jan 15

Malda: The 35th book fair of Malda was inaugurated by Siddiqullah Choudhury, state minister of Mass Education Extension and Library Services and Sudeshna Roy, well known writer and actor on Monday at 3 pm. The fair will go on till January 15.

After a colourful rally organised with students of various schools containing slogans and messages on books from Brindavani Maidan to Malda College ground in English Bazar, venue for the event, the fair has been opened for the people for free. The theme for the event is “We shall learn language, we’ll write books”.

Choudhury mentioned the huge development of the infrastructure for the book fairs for the last 12 years by Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of the state. He also advocated strongly in favour of the development of Bengali language spoken all over the world by almost 30 crore people.

Choudhury said: “I would request the teachers of schools and colleges to organise symposiums and seminars on languages. If the schools need reference books for students of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 they must write to libraries for a free delivery of them. Last year books worth Rs 9 crore 12 lakh were sold all over the state book fairs which is very much inspiring. Moreover, Malda, Murshidabad and Asansol were the leaders in selling books. I shall also ask the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police to organise classes for making IAS and IPS from the state. “

The other inaugurator, Sudeshna Roy, said: “We must pay respect to every language. I would also ask the organizers to include braille in the pamphlets for the campaigning of the book fair.”

There are 171 stalls at the fair, 160 of which are for books from various publishers including some from Bangladesh.