GUWAHATI: All Assam Publishers Association, the organiser of the North East Book Fair, has decided to defer the 22nd edition of annual fair to November next year
The book fair was earlier postponed from November 2020 to January-February 2021. However, the public advisory committee meeting of the fair held last Sunday decided that since no dates were available in the months of January and February 2021, and participants are reluctant to participate due to ongoing pandemic, the 22nd edition of the fair has been postponed to November 2021.
Besides, exams of schools and colleges would be scheduled during that period (January-February) while there has been no commitment from sponsors, a member of the organisation informed.
“We urge the state government to allot the Assam Engineering Institute playground in the month of November every year to organise the North East Book Fair. The advisory committee also requests the government for monetary aid to organise the North East Book Fair in future,” a statement from the publishers association said on Thursday.
“All book fairs in the country have been affected due to the pandemic this year. As per the all India schedule, most of the book fairs have been cancelled,” it said.
The association further informed a request to organize the North East Book Fair by maintaining all COVID protocols was made to the state education minister in October this year. “But unfortunately we did not receive any response,” it added.
Subsequently, several intellectuals, writers and book lovers gave a proposal to organise the fair in the month of February 2021 given that the organisers did not get permission from the government this year.