Staff Reporter :The month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela (Book Fair) begins today (Sunday) at its traditional venue Bangla Academy premises and at Suhrawardy Udyan. The Bangla Academy authorities have already completed all preparations for inaugurating the Boi Mela on the academy premises at 3pm. This year, the Government institutions and organisations have set up their stalls on the Bangla Academy premises while all the publishing houses have set up stalls at Suhrawardy Udyan.Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina who will inaugurate the Boi Mela is also expected to open the four-day International Literary Conference-2015 marking the traditional national event. Authors, poets and linguistics from eight countries would participate in the international conference. Apart from inaugurating the two events at 3:00pm, the prime minister will also distribute Bangla Academy Literary Award-2014 among the recipients at the inaugural function. Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman will preside over the function while Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor will be present as special guest. Director General of Bangla Academy Shamsuzzaman Khan will deliver opening speech while Cultural Affairs Secretary Dr Ranjit Kumar Biswas will make a goodwill speech. Besides, Littérateur Hans Harder from Germany, Writer France Bhattacharya from France, Littérateur Father Datiyan from Belgium and former Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra-Bharati University Dr. Pobitro Sarkar from India will be present at the function. Bangla Academy on Thursday honoured seven eminent poets, writers and educationists with Literary Award-2014 for their contributions to various disciplines. They were Shihab Sarkar in poetry, Zakir Talukdar in prose, Shantanu Kaiser in essay, Bhuiyan Iqbal in research, Abu Mohammad Delwar Hossain for his work on the Liberation War, Bangladeshi expatriate writer Mainus Sultan in biography and travelogue category and Khaleque Bin Zainuddin in juvenile literature.This year, no awards have been given in drama, translation, science and technology, and environment. Each winner will receive Tk one lakh in cash, a crest and a certificate from the Prime Minister at the inaugural ceremony of the Ekushey Boi Mela and International Literary Conference. About 300 organisations are likely to participate in the fair this year. Among these, 230 were mainstream publishing houses while 26 children’s book publication houses and 18 were government organisations. The stalls for the mainstream publishing houses have been placed inside the Suhrawardy Udyan while stalls of children’s book publishing houses, little magazine corners, government organisations and the Bangla Academy would be inside the Bangla Academy compound.Cultural affairs minister Asaduzzaman Noor said the “Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela 2015″ is going to start with adequate security measures.”Required law enforcers have been deployed at the fair venue to ensure security of the visitors,” he said. “There will be five control rooms of law enforcers and a fire service control room at the ground,” he said.Bangla Academy officials said there would be discussions and cultural events on the main stage on the Bangla Academy premises alongside the book fair.
