By IANS
Kolkata : There is good news for book lovers and publishers who had given up hope of the annual Kolkata Book Fair being held this year after the high court disallowed it at the scheduled venue. A state minister said Friday that an alternative book fair would be held March 1-10 at another venue.
Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Subhas Chakraborty told reporters that the book fair would be held at Salt Lake Stadium and be called Book Fair-2008. A committee, constituted by the state sports department, will monitor the fair.
Earlier Friday, the Book Fair and Publishers Guild’s general secretary Trideep Chattopadhyay met the minister.
“We all want the book fair to take place and there is no second opinion about it. The minister has given us his assurance,” Chattopadhyay told reporters after the meeting.
The 33rd Kolkata Book Fair was cancelled with the Calcutta High Court ruling against the organisers’ decision to hold it in the Park Circus ground this year. A group of residents had gone to court, citing environmental concerns over the venue.
The court ruling had given a body blow to the Publishers and Booksellers Guild.
The Guild, the sole body that organises the Kolkata Book Fair, had to shift the most-awaited cultural event of the city to Salt Lake last year after green activists won a legal battle to block the fair at Kolkata Maidan, considered the city’s green lungs.