Guwahati: Publication Board Assam is a literary institution established on May 2, 1958. Last year, it started to organise book fairs across Assam to promote reading, help intellectuals and increase sale of books for booksellers. Apart from publication of various literary books, it has organised as many as seven book fairs since last year.
Business Northeast spoke to Secretary of Publication Board of Assam Pramod Kalita to have an insight into the works of the Board and its upcoming events. Excerpts:
BNE: Please tell us something about the Assam Publication Board.
Secretary: Assam Publication Board is under higher education department of the Government of Assam. The publications are literary. It is formed and controlled by the Government of Assam, The state education minister is the Chairman of the institution. There is a Vice Chairman too. With the association of some members, the Board is formed. Based on the instructions of the Board, the Secretary of the Publication Board functions. The Secretary is the main functionary of the Board. Its main purpose to forward the state intellectually.
For this, the first step is to publish books of high standard. While some commercial publication house refuse to publish certain books on business grounds, we prefer publishing such books as well. This publication board publishes books not only in Assamese but other languages of Assam.
Apart from this, to promote the tradition of book reading in Assam, create awareness, increases the sale of books, improve quality of books, a number of times book fairs have been organised by us.
Earlier, a book fair used to be organised in Guwahati since 1984 by the Publication Board. But since the last year the Assam Publication Board in collaboration with All Assam Book Publishers and Sellers’ Association has started to conduct Assam Book Fair. This year we are conducting Assam Book Fair in various places of Assam.
Meanwhile, we have organised Assam Book Fair in Dhemaji, Nalbari, Jorhat, Diphu and Guwahati. The last book fair of this financial year will be organised in Bongaigaon from March 13-19.
Apart from various objectives, our main objective is to improve the condition of booksellers. We have adhered to various norms for popularising the event as a government organisation in collaboration with private organisation. The motive is to bring customers to books. We have adopted various ways to attract readers.
The Bongaigaon Book Fair will be inaugurated by the education minister.
Eminent writer from Kolkata, Tilottama Mazumdar, will be present at the inauguration as the Chief Guest. Assam’s famous litterateur Dinesh Goswami will be present at the event. Another important subscription originator, author and columnist Sumanta Chaliha, will be present. On each day, various renowned writers shall be present to grace the occasion.
Booksellers from across the state will display their stall in this book fair. On the successful completion of this book fair, we can say that Assam Publication Board has taken an important step in terms of bookselling in the state.
BNE: As you have discussed about the upcoming book fair in Bongaigaon, how many stalls will be installed?
Secretary: It is too early to tell now. Still, we can expect 25 stalls. We cannot expect the participation similar to Guwahati. Yet, this is our first attempt in Bongaigaon. So, we are expecting a success.
BNE: Books of which languages and subjects will be present?
Secretary: Books of various languages, not only in Assamese but also Bodo, Mishing, Bengali, Hindi and English will be there.
BNE: Where in Bongaigaon will this book fair be organised?
Secretary: It will be in Gandhi Maidan of Bongaigaon. By this time, construction work has started. If we can make this book fair successful than it will assure us that people will always support the success of book fairs in a small town of Lower Assam.
BNE: Who are your target groups?
Secretary: Educated people are the target group of this book fair. Every educated person wants their children to be educated. Even illiterate people want their children to be educated. So, our first target will be educated people. Secondly, we expect illiterate people to bring their children. We are embarking on various publicity strategies to attract them.
BNE: Have you organised any competitions in this book fair to attract people?
Secretary: There will be many competitions in the fair like art competition, quiz competition, recitation competition, etc. Every day, three schools will take part in cultural functions cum competitions. As many as 20 schools will be taking part in this event. The best presenter shall be awarded with prize money and trophy. Besides there will be individual prizes as well.’
All Assam Book Publishers and Sellers’ Association associated with us has started a new competition too on their behalf. It is not a joint programme. In this competition, if a buyer purchase books worth Rs.1000 than he or she will be provided with a coupon. On the last day, from the coupon owners three winners will be selected through lottery method. The three winners shall receive a total Rs. 1 lakh. The motive of the competition is to attract more people. When they requested us to conduct such a competition we informed them that officially we cannot do that as we are government organization yet, we did not stop them from doing the same.
We do not expect that this will increase number of buyers but we do want that at the end of the day the winner can actually take back Rs. 50,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs.20000 for themselves.
BNE: What footfall you have expected in the same book fair?
Secretary: We cannot predict so soon. Bongaigaon has a mixed population. People of every community rreside here. We aspire to bring everyone to this fair. We expect this fair to be successful.
BNE: What future goals does Assam Publication Board have?
Secretary: Yes, we have plans in future. This financial year, we have organized 7 Book fairs, including a green book fair. In the coming year, we have plan to organise 10 book fairs. We are trying our best how to promote Assamese language technically as well. We are keen to publish more book languages other than Assamese in the coming years. We have plans to translate some important books to Bodo, Hindi, Bengali and English.
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