The 12-day long 40th Agartala Book Fair which will commence at Hapania International Fair Ground from March 25 next with a theme ‘My Tripura, My Pride’ and ‘Drugs-free Tripura’ this year added four more awards to its existing 12. The organizing committee proposed new awards for young talents- for the youngsters below 35 years of age—Satyaram Reang Memorial Award (Dance), Ashwini Kumar Biswas Memorial Award (Music), Sumangal Sen Memorial Award (Painting/ Sculpture) and Ajit Majumder Memorial Award (Drama). Besides, two awards exclusively for women have also been proposed.
The preparations and other related issues were discussed in a preparatory meeting held at the conference hall of ICA department on Sunday.
ICA minister Sushanta Chowdhury, AMC Mayor Dipak Majumder, member of cultural advisory committee Subrata Chakraborty, secretary of Ica department P.K. Goyal, director Ratan Biswas and other officials were present.
Meanwhile, computerized lottery for distribution of stalls for the ensuing Book Fair was held at the ICA office on Sunday. Lottery for 121 stalls was done.
Speaking to the media, the ICA Director said the lottery is being conducted in a computerized system for maintaining transparency in stall distribution.
He said, this year the highest number of stalls would be there in the Agartala Book Fair. The ICA director sought cooperation from all to make the Agartala Book Fair successful.
Secretary of Publishers and book Sellers Association Rakhal Majumder, general secretary of All Tripura Book Sellers and Publishers Association Uttam Chakraborty, secretary of Tripura Publishers Guild Shubabrata Deb and other representatives were present during the lottery
(Representative Pic taken from open source)
