Mismanagement disappoints visitors
Staff correspondent
The Ekushey book fair on the second day on Monday had a few visitors till evening and the environment remained dusty as it was on the opening day.
Titles by Humayun Ahmed and Muhammad Zafar Iqbal topped the sales of the day which witnessed arrival of 110 books.
Mismanagement by the organisers marked the second day of the month-long fair at Bangla Academy.
Decoration of a good many stalls is yet to be completed and many stalls displaying books had no signboards.
Visitors expressed their dissatisfaction over the clouds of dust inside the fair ground.
‘I should not have come today,’ said Tanjima, a Dhaka university student. ‘There is dust all around and I felt annoyed with the decoration work still on.’
Poor security was also noticed on the second day. The people entering the fair venue through two subways — one beside the Dhaka University staff quarters and another by maousoleum of three nation al leaders did not face security check.
The road from the Teachers-Students Centre to Doyel Chattar will remain closed for traffic during the month-long fair, an on-duty police officer said.
Six archways were expected to be set up at the entrances to the fair but only four have been installed.
The information centre set up by the fair committee failed to give information to the journalists and visitors on the second day.
Although the publishers have been requested to send one copy of their new books to the information centre but many refrained from doing the job.
In the evening, a list of only 21 books was sent to the media centre while around 170 books were displayed at the fair in last two days.
At Bangla Academy stall, English-Bengali and Bengali-English dictionaries were selling like hot cake but the academy failed to fulfil the demand.
‘We didn’t get paper from the Karnafully Paper Mills according to our demand due to the national and upazila polls and text book publishing.’
‘Paper was bought from private sector and within 10 days we will be able to met the demand of buyers,’ Bangla Academy director General Said Syed Mohammad Shahed, said.
A around 15 stalls like Bangabandhu Recharch Centre, Bangabandhu Boimela Parishad, Sanghati Literary Society, Samraggi were found closed. At least six of them did not have sign boards.
Some stall owners were found busy decorating their stalls.
‘We know that some stalls are yet to be opened. We are trying to contact with them’ Syed Mohammad, told a press conference
On the second day, 10 books were launched at Lekhok Kunja while 110 new books were put on display displayed in different stalls.
‘Aj Dupore Tomar Nimantran’ and ‘Himur Babar Kothamala’ by Humayun Ahmed and ‘Muktijudher Ithihas’ by Jafar Iqbal were among best sellers on the day.
Meanwhile, the academy held a seminar on the studies of languages as part of a month-long series. Monsur Musa read out the keynote paper and Moniruzzaman, Muham-mad Daniul Haque and Kazi Muhammad Oliullah took part in the discussion series seminar ‘Prospective Bangladesh’. Seminar was followed by a cultural programme
The academy will hold a seminar on the fine arts as part of a month-long series this afternoon. Mainuddin Khaled will read out the keynote paper and Rafikun Nabi, Hamiduzzanman and Qaiyum Chowdhury will take part in the discussion.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
