By IANS
Kolkata : The Kolkata Book Fair seems to have found a new venue, finally.
After a yearlong uncertainty, the world’s largest non-trade book fair, has settled for Park Circus Maidan to host the literary carnival in 2008.
The 32nd edition of the fortnight-long fair, organised by the Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Guild, begins January 30 next.
“We will host the fair this time on Park Circus Maidan. Here, we will get about 60 per cent of the total area that we used to get on the Maidan and hence there would be no food stalls this year,” joint secretary of the Guild Tridib Chatterjee said.
However, organisers of Asia’s biggest book fair are still apprehensive, keeping in mind the disgrace in January when the court did not allow them to host the fair at the Maidan, a vast stretch of green in the heart of the city, on environmental ground.
The Publishers and Booksellers Guild had to shift the most-awaited cultural event to Salt Lake in 2007 after the city’s green brigade won a legal battle to block the fair at the Maidan.
“The fair will have a delegation from America. The US is the theme of the fair this year. There will be a huge number of books from Latin America. People wait for the fair every year to check out books from across the world,” said Chatterjee.
“Keeping in mind the fact that there are enough eateries in the area, we can do without food stalls and allocate the space for more books,” he said.
A guild official, however, said Park Circus would be the venue provided there was no fresh trouble from any quarters.
Reports said a group of environmentalist is not too happy with even Park Circus ground as an alternative to the Maidan.
A team of experts from SAFE, an NGO enlisted with the state environment department, said pollution in the area rises during fairs and affects quality of ambient air.
Green crusader Subhas Dutta, the man responsible for the many environment-friendly judgments, said they would always demand a permanent fair venue to prevent pollution.
“We have been demanding a permanent fair ground, or else there would be pollution from dust and destruction of greenery,” Datta told IANS.
“We think Park Circus Maidan is not the right venue because of the presence of schools, colleges and hospitals nearby, not to speak of the private residences. We will monitor the level of pollution this year and move (court),” Datta said.
“You cannot forecast pollution like weather. So we cannot say now if there would be more pollution in Park Circus or less. Let us go by facts and proper measurement of the level of pollution during the fair,” he said.
Earlier, the Guild had shot down a proposal by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to hold the fair jointly at the Park Circus Maidan.
Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya had suggested that KMC can co-host the fair but Guild joint secretary Trideb Chatterjee had dismissed the idea saying: “Guild is an independent and democratic body. We don’t want to lose our identity by co-hosting the fair.”
Despite the preparations, the Calcutta High Court in January this year had ruled that the 31st Kolkata Book Fair would not be allowed on the Maidan as it violated environmental laws.