BY TC News Desk
Agartala, April 05: Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen on Wednesday said that there is a touch of sadness everywhere as the 41st Agartala Book Fair has been concluded. He compared book fair with ‘Bijoya Dashami’. He said that the book fair is one of the festivals or ‘Parban’ and like Durga Puja, every year we look forward to book fair.
Addressing at the closing and felicitation ceremony at International Fair Ground, Hapania here on Wednesday evening, Sen said that the book fair will develop the habit of reading books. The creations of Rabindranath and Nazrul excite us even today.
In the event, former Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma said that books should be read as long as there is human civilization and there is no alternative. No matter how you read books, conventional books are timeless. To know the world, one must read books. He said, in conventional books, the writer and the reader are face to face. Book Fair is held with this popular book.
At the closing ceremony of the 49th Agartala Book Fair, eminent intellectual of Bangladesh Ekushey Medalist Subhash Singh Roy said, “Agartala is a place of feeling for me. The name of Agartala is associated with the liberation war. In the liberation war of 1971, the brave freedom fighters of Bangladesh took refuge in Agartala. Our gratitude to this city is endless.”
He applied to observe one day of the next Agartala Book Fair as Bangladesh Day. Secretary of Information and Cultural Affairs department Dr Pradeep Kumar Chakraborty spoke among others. ICA Director Ratan Biswas gave the welcome address.
Moreover, MLA Meena Rani Sarkar, All Tripura Booksellers and Publishers Association secretary Uttam Chakraborty, Secretary of Tripura Publishers Guild Ajit Debbarma and Secretary of Publishers and Booksellers Association Rakhal Majumdar were present at the closing ceremony of the book fair.
On the twelfth day of the book fair, books worth Rs 13 lakh 69 thousand 471 were sold yesterday while in these 12 days, the total number of books sold is Rs 1 crore 27 lakh 89 thousand 585.
At the closing ceremony of the book fair, 17 people were honoured for their special contribution in the field of society, literature, culture, music and art. This year’s Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur Memorial Award was given to Jishnu Dev Varma. Biswabandhu Sen, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, gave the award to him. Posthumous Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Jatiya Sanghati Purshkar given to late Dr HS Roy Chowdhury and his son Homari Shankar Roy Chowdhury accepted the award on his behalf.
Posthumous Atal Bihari Vajpayee Lifetime Memorial Award given to Late Bhupendra Chandra Datta Bhowmik and his son Birat Datta Bhowmik accepted the award on his behalf. A posthumous Sachin Debbarman Memorial Award was given to the late Harekrishna Ray and Manju Ray accepted the award on his behalf. Dhirendra Krishna Debbarman Memorial Award given to Debabrata Bhattacharya, Salil Krishna Debbarman Memorial Award to Jyotirmoy Das, Kalikingar Debbarman Memorial Award to Gopal Chandra Biswas, Tripuresh Majumdar Memorial Award to Ramakrishna Debnath, Bhishmed Bhattacharya Memorial Award to Shyamoli Devavarma, Lalan Award to Dr Uttam Saha, Ashwini Kumar Biswas Memorial Youth Award to Sumanta Kumar Tripura, Ajit Majumdar Memorial Youth Award to Jadu Bhushan Sur Das, Satyaram Riang Youth Award to Ajay Debnath and Sumangal Sen Memorial Youth Award to Rajesh Sinha. Moreover, Tripura Bani Publications was awarded the Radhamohan Tagore Memorial Award for Best Bengali Book Publication, Daulat Ahmed Memorial Award to Penstar Publications for Best Kokborok Publication and Furbawe Publications for Best Publications other than Bengali and Kokborok. Parul Prakashani, Niharika and Parul Library got the first, second and third prizes for the decoration of the pandal in the book fair. The guests present awarded them.
