The 16th Sambalpur Book Fair organised by the SETU, a socio-cultural organisation, ended here on Wednesday. The ground of the Gangadhar Meher College turned to be a place of gathering for writers, publishers and book lovers for the last eight days.
“It was proved once again that the love for books has not diminished among people in spite of the invasion of computers and other electronic devices,” said Harihar Panda, an active member of the SETU.
Over 150 book sellers from the State and country participated in the fair this year. Fifteen years back, the fair had started with only 30 stalls, Panda informed. Over these years, the interest of people to purchase books during the fair has increased manifold, he said. “The books sellers also expressed satisfaction over a good business this year like the previous years,” said RN Mahapatra of Saraswati Pustak Bhandar.
On January 15, former SETU president Khirod Mishra had inaugurated the fair. On the closing day, DIG of Sambalpur Sanjay Kumar was the chief guest. This year’s SETU Samman was given to Prof Madhusudan Pati. literary discussions of high quality were organised every evening where students and intelligentsia took part.
“Book fair is a platform for knowledge gaining. Very rare and desired books are available here that we don’t get from local market,” said Sneegdha Mandal, a student of the GM College after purchasing some books from a Delhi-based seller’s stall.