SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR, Dec 14: The 24th Silchar book fair which began here from today would conclude on December 25, the venue being Bipin Paul Sabhasthal, Circuit House Road. It was iugurated by Dr. Ardhendu Kumar Dey, former minister and chairman of state linguistic minority development council, and graced by Lovely Choudhury, distinguished poet of Bangladesh, besides dignified persolities of the town. Dr. Dey spoke on the importance of reading books and advised students and youths in particular to develop it as a hobby.
Reading of books not only increases knowledge but also provides incentives for creative and constructive thoughts and ideas. Lovely Choudhury also laid stress on reading books. A book fair ebles the readers to get books of their choice at one place. It is in the interest of all and the society that book fair should be organized regularly, she pointed out. With the iugural song of Panditlal Das, the stage was set for the book fair which has 51 stalls stuffed with books of all sorts to cater to the needs of readers.
The stalls are from West Bengal, Tripura, Bangladesh and Barak Valley. Paritosh Paul Choudhury, president of the Book Fair Committee, and Nihar Ranjan Paul, general secretary, expressed their hope that the visitors and book lovers in the fair would be coming to the stalls everyday to have books of their choice. The 12 day long book fair will have variety of literary, cultural and jourlistic programmes. Apart from that, recitations, discussions on the prospect of industrialization in Barak Valley, jourlism in Barak and the hopes and aspirations of people along with dramatic performances among others engrossing items would form part of the more than a week long book fair.