Ekushey Book Fair to close tomorrow
The government yesterday decided to conclude Amar Ekushey Boi Mela (book fair) tomorrow instead of Wednesday, the scheduled closure date, as another seven-day countrywide lockdown will start from Wednesday.
State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid made the announcement through a press release yesterday.
The decision came at a time when the government is going to enforce another weeklong strict lockdown all over the country from Wednesday to curb the rising Covid-19 infections.
"We had no alternative but to bring down the curtain on Boi Mela on April 12…Besides, number of Covid-19 infections and casualties are increasing every day," the state minister for cultural affairs ministry told The Daily Star.
Earlier, several public health experts spoke in favour of closure of Boi Mela, a major annual event of the country held with much fanfare and festivities, as the number of Covid-19 infections has been increasing, especially from the end of March.
Although Boi Mela is taking place in an open area majorly, many visitors and staffers of book shops seemed oblivious regarding maintaining health safety measures and social distancing.
The book fair, which started on March 18 amid the resurgence of Covid-19 and was scheduled to end on April 14, failed to get its usual momentum with publishers and sellers.
Although the government enforced a weeklong lockdown from April 4, The fair was allowed to continue.
This year, 834 units of space were allocated to 540 publishing houses and organisations to facilitate sale of books and other publications.
The authorities allotted 154 units on Bangla Academy premises to 107 organisations, and 680 units in Suhrawardy Udyan to 433 organisations.
Considering the Covid-19 social-distancing requirements, the land earmarked for this year's fair was expanded to 1,500,000 square feet.
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