Ekushey Book Fair to end 12 April

Amar Ekushey Boil Mela (Book Fair) will conclude on 12 April, just two days before its closure schedule, due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country.

State minister for cultural affairs KM Khalid made the announcement through a press release on Saturday, reports UNB.

The decision of closure comes at a time when the government is going to enforce a week-long strict lockdown across the country starting from 14 April, aimed at curbing the Covid-19 transmission.

Talking to UNB, Jalal Ahmed, director of Bangla Academy and member secretary of Ekushey Book Fair Committee, said, "The book fair will end on 12 April ahead of countrywide week long strict lockdown from 14 April."

The book fair that started on 18 March amid the resurgence of Covid-19 and was scheduled to end on 14 April, failed to get its usual momentum with publishers and sellers fearing to incur huge losses in their businesses.

Although the government enforced a weeklong lockdown from 4 April it allowed the Bangla Academy to go ahead with the fair.

This year, 834 units were allocated to 540 publishing houses and organisations to facilitate sale of books and other publications.

The authorities allotted 154 units on the Bangla Academy premises to 107 organisations and 680 units in the Suhrawardy Udyan to 433 organisations.

onsidering the Covid-19 social-distancing requirements, the land earmarked for this year's fair was expanded to 1,500,000 square feet.