Every book buyer at the Tiruvallur book fair, which is on till April 11 at the District Collectorate, gets a Manja Pai (a yellow cloth bag) and a sapling. “We are not only encouraging the habit of reading among residents but also letting them plant saplings at their homes and carry the books in the cloth bag. The State government has embarked upon a cloth bag campaign to prevent use of plastics,” said Alby John Varghese, District Collector.
BAPASI Secretary S.K. Murugan said that in the last three days, books worth ₹25 lakh were sold in the book fair organised jointly by the district administration in association with BAPASI.
“A 10% discount is offered on all book purchases. We have had over 10,000 visitors and books meant for children were being sold in large numbers,” he said. The exhibition has 110 stalls by 110 publishers offering over one lakh titles.
With at least 250 schoolchildren from both private and government-run schools participating in cultural programmes daily, the fair has come a cultural extravaganza of sorts. In the mornings, students from government schools participate and private school students perform in the afternoons.
Arrangements have been made to bring at least 1,500 students from schools to the fair daily.
“We wanted to encourage reading habit among our students. Our district has around 7 lakh students and many of them are in rural areas. We are asking panchayats to buy books so that people will have access to books,” Mr. Varghese added.
Popular speakers including Tamil Nadu Text Book Society Chairman Dindigul Leoni, K. Gnanasambandam and Parveen Sultana have been engaged to deliver a talk in the evenings.
