Khulna divisional book fair begins Tuesday, to run for nine days

The divisional book fair in Khulna begins on Tuesday morning (10 November) at 10am. The nine-day fair will continue until 18 November. It is being held on the premises of the Divisional Commissioner's office at Boyra in the city.

A press conference was held on Monday (9 November) afternoon in the conference room of the Khulna Divisional Commissioner on the occasion of the fair. Divisional Commissioner Md Abdullah Harun spoke at the event.

The Divisional Commissioner said there is no alternative to reading books for building an enlightened, knowledge-minded nation. The aim of the book fair is to increase the reading habit among ordinary people and to build a knowledge-based society.

He said that keeping this goal in mind, the government is organising creative book fairs at the divisional level across the country. The Khulna divisional book fair is being held as part of that series.

The fair will remain open to everyone every day from 3pm to 10pm. On government holidays, the fair will run from 10am to 10pm.

Every day the fair will feature cultural programmes, readings of self-written poems, and poetry recitation, extempore speech and quiz competitions for children and teenagers.

Three seminars have been arranged over three days to make the fair lively. In addition, three book buyers will be rewarded every day through coupons.

The fair will have a total of 90 stalls. Of these, 71 stalls have been allotted to publishers coming from Dhaka. Nine stalls are for divisional and district offices.

There will also be one stall each for the police control room, an information centre, a nursery, a readers' adda and media workers. Five stalls will serve food. The publishers' stalls will display and sell their own published books.

The fair is being organised by the National Book Centre under the direction of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and under the overall management of the Divisional Commissioner's office. Creative publishers are cooperating in the event.

Additional Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) Sifat Mehnaz, Additional Divisional Commissioner (General) Abu Sayed Md Monjur Alam and print and electronic media personnel working in Khulna were present at the press conference.

The inaugural ceremony of the fair will be held on Tuesday at 10am.