Due to the Corona epidemic, the general public had doubts about this year’s book fair, whether this year’s book fair will be organized. Finally, after overcoming all the fears, Amar Ekushey Book Fair is starting from 15th February. On this day, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the book fair with a virtual part.
Secretary of the Ministry of Culture Md. Abul Mansur shared this information.
.He said that the Prime Minister has kindly agreed to inaugurate the book fair on 15th February with the virtual part.
The main theme of this year’s fair is ‘Bangabandhu’s birth centenary and the golden jubilee of independence’. Due to the corona, the publishers suffered huge losses in 2021 due to the limited organization of the book fair. Many publishers have been forced to suspend their work for the past two years. The publishers are not dispelling the fear that if the spread of Omicron increases this year too, they will have to face new losses.
Bangla Academy has already started preparations for several works including the allotment of stalls. In the meantime, since the beginning of January, new variants of the Corona, Omicron, have spread and new restrictions have been issued worldwide. Infection is also increasing day by day in Bangladesh. In this situation, there are concerns about how the fair will be managed or whether it will be possible to hold the fair at all. Publishers, writers, readers all have questions in their minds, what will not be the book fair? The organizing body Bangla Academy says that preparations are going on till now.
However, they also said that the decision will be taken according to the government’s health rules. And since no decision has been made yet in this situation, the publishers are preparing in accordance with the policy. Meanwhile, the National Technical Advisory Committee on COVID-19 has expressed concern over the rise in Corona infections. In this situation, the committee has recommended stopping all kinds of rallies. Last Friday, the chairman of the committee, Prof. This information was given in the press release signed by Dr. Mohammad Sahidullah. The publishers are trying to survive by planning in their own way, assuming that they will have to face any unpleasant decision at any time in the case of COVID, but the concerned people think that the loss will be less in the future by calculating a little while preparing.
