Book ‘Marks’

The 34th annual Book Fair has been surrounded by claims of improper arrangements right from the beginning. This gives rise to another big question - what will the condition of the Milon Mela grounds be once the fair is over?

Grounds after such melas generally bear injury marks such as holes dug all over, burnt patches, empty plastic bags, crushed bottles and the list is endless. And this is when the blame game begins with the authorities and organisers competing to shirk the responsibilities of restoring the ground conditions to the condition it was in before the fair.

Sribhindu Bhattacharya, convenor, public relation and media, Publishers And Booksellers Guild, explaining the planning process for the book fair, said, “We start planning for the next book fair as soon as one is over. For this year, nine sub-committees have been formed headed by the respective convenors. The sub-committees include ground management, seminars and medias relations, directory publication and ground security among others. All these subcommittees submit their plan proposal around five months prior to the commencement of the fair. It is only after this that we approach the government for the venue.”

Full report here Kolkata Mirror