Our fight to bring Book Fair back to Maidan is on: Guild

“The Maidan is our most preferred location and we are fighting for it. The Chief Minister has assured us that we will reach at an amicable solution by the end of May,” said Tridib Kumar Chattopadhyay, General Secretary, Publishers and Booksellers Guild.

The book fair at Salt Lake stadium this year was apparently successful, but small and medium publishers suffered huge losses. “On an average, the footfall at the Maidan every year used to be between 22-25 lakh. But this year at the Salt Lake stadium the footfall was a meager three lakh,” said Chattopadhyay.

Asked about an alternative location for the Kolkata Book Fair, Chattopadhyay said: “Our demand is to have a permanent place where the book fair will be held every year.

Beggars cannot be choosers. We had agreed to Milan Mela. But there is a litigation problem there.” The Guild had submitted a proposal to the state government that said that it is ready to have the Book Fair at the Maidan for 12 days, in lieu of which they volunteered to maintain and beautify the area where the fair would be held.

“We are fighting a case at the Supreme Court and have submitted two letters to the chief minister on January 29 and March 24. The CM, being a book lover himself, we are sure, will find a solution,” said Chattopadhyay.

Chattopadhyay was speaking in a press conference organised to announce the Book Bazaar that will be held at Rabindra Sadan Academy premises from April 23 to May 4. Besides Indian publishers, the Bazaar will see publications from Romania, Latin America and Africa.

The Bazaar will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister on April 23 and author Sunil Gangopadhyay and artist Pronobesh Maity will be felicitated.

“One can get books of foreign publications for as low as Rs 100,” said Chattopadhyay. Also the discussions on various topics like folk literature of Bengal, African literature and Latin American literature will be held simultaneously at Mukta Mancha.