This is for the first time that the city will host a 10-day book fair organised by the National Book Trust, New Delhi. Books on various subjects including Punjabi literature, books for children and self-help books have been put on show in more than 100 stalls.

The fair, which is being held at the SCD Government College ground, houses stalls of different book publication or distribution houses from the city and elsewhere too. “Though Ludhiana as a city is not much known for its love for books, a book fair like this can really be a good boost. Books on various subjects are available here and it is certainly a delight to find rare books here. I have bought about six books for my children and am planning to buy a few more,” said Harpreet, a housewife.

Meanwhile, a controversy erupted in the morning when the inauguration of the fair was to be held.

The bone of contention was reportedly the fact that a section of Punjabi litterateurs complained that the organisers of the fair had not accorded due respect to some of the leading Punjabi writers .

It has been learnt that the NBT had invited poet Gubhajan Singh Gill to preside over the function while stalwarts like Dr Surjit Patar, Dr Sutinder Singh Noor and Sahit Akademy award winners Mitr Sain Meet and N S Tasneem were sidelined as they did not feature in the list of the presiding officers.

In a strong reaction to this, Dr Surjit Patar stayed away from the function, refusing to cite any reason for doing so,

Dr Sutinder Singh Noor, Vice-President, Bhartiya Sahit Akdemi, and one of the most decorated figures in the field of Punjabi literature left the function midway.

Dr Noor said, “I simply did not want to create any controversy for I do not want that the exhibition should suffer in any way. Yet the NBT officials should know whom to invite as a chief guest or presiding officer.”

Adding to this, N S Tasneem too added, “I would not like comment on the matter for I want the exhibition to be a success. But yes, the simple etiquettes are missing among Punjabi litterateurs. While the literatuerers of Hindi, Urdu and English show respect to their seniors with the juniors voluntarily leaving the dais or abstaining from sitting on the dais it is grossly missing in Punjabi language.”