Patna Book Fair to begin from February 4

The 11-day Patna Book Fair will begin from February 4 with the theme - Skilled Youth-Progressive Bihar.
Patna Book Fair, which is normally held in the months of November or December every year, had to be deferred in 2016 due to Prakashotsav celebrations, the 350th birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, which was being held at Gandhi Maidan, Centre for Readership Development Convener Amit Jha said.
The 11-day book fair organised by CRD would be held at Gandhi Maidan from February 4 to 14, he said.
Skill development of youths was a national agenda and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also outlined skill development as one of his 'seven resolves', Jha said.

"About 65 to 70 per cent youths visit the fair and that's why special focus has been laid on youths in this year's book fair," he said.
Around 700 stalls would be put up at the fair which would be spread over 75,000 sq ft area at Gandhi Maidan, he said adding, more than 250 publishers would participate in the fair, Jha said.

He said the entry fee of Jha for the 23rd Patna Book Fair would be Rs ten per person and entry for school children in uniform with ID cards would be free. The fair would also be free for differently-abled persons.

Patna Book Fair president H L Gulati said the fair was known for its huge crowd of book lovers and volume of sales.
"The speciality of the fair is that it attracts seven to eight lakh book lovers and sale volume is around Rs 5 crore," Gulati said.
He said demonetisation would not have any adverse impact on the sale of books at the fair as many publishers were coming with POS machines.
Besides, the organisers were having talks with the State Bank of India for installing ATMs at the fair ground, Gulati said.
CRD president Ratneshwar, accompanied by CRD secretary Amarendra Kumar Jha, said under the 'Nai Kitab' programme, a discussion on new and recently published books would be held, which would be graced by eminent writers and journalists such as Shazi Jama, Jatendra Mishra, Awadesh Preet and Shivdayal.