In the midst of grief and
mourning over the martyrdom of 42 CRPF jawans in Pulwama on yesterday, the 37th
Agartala Book fair was inaugurated at Children’s park by Governor Kaptan Singh
Solanki on Friday evening in presence of Chief Minister and other dignitaries.
The beginning of the fair started with one minute silence in
memory martyred jawans.
In his inaugural speech Governor paid his respect to all
martyred jawans and strongly criticized the cowardly act of foreign militants.
Chief Minister in speech declared that Tripura government
will pay Rs. 2 lakh to each family of the martyred of Pulwama and criticized the
act.
Earlier, in the inauguration programme, ML Dey, secretary of
ICA department said that with the theme of Tripura with great tradition and
heritage and the fair will continue up to February 26 next.
Giving details of the fair, Dey said that the fair will
remain open from 2 PM to 9 PM on working days and from 1 PM to 9 PM on
holidays. The book fair will end on February 26. There will be altogether 150
book stalls of various categories-large, big, medium and small. Among the book
stalls, 82 from Tripura, 55 stalls from Kolkata, six stalls from Guwahati, 4
stalls from New Delhi and three more stalls from neighbouring Bangladesh.
During the fair days, altogether twelve awards to men of
letters and people with proven track record of social and cultural service will
be given. The 'Atal Bihari Vaypayee life time award', which will introduce from
this year, would be given to a renowned person from the fields of arts, culture
and literacy with cash amount of Rs 1 lakh.
