Book guild offers to build green Maidan site

Publishers & Booksellers Guild is willing to implement the recommendations made by the Environment Protection Cell in the hope that Maidan will be handed over to it as the permanent venue for the Kolkata Book Fair every year.

According to Tridib Chatterjee, general secretary of the Guild, "We want Kolkata Book Fair 2009 at a proper venue where the small and medium sized participants will not suffer and Kolkata Book Fair is able to retain its open-air international character."

According to Chatterjee, there was no place in Kolkata other than Maidan where the major event could be held, keeping in mind its characteristics and easy accessibility to all classes of booklovers.

The Guild is willing to take the responsibility of maintaining this permanent 'Boi Mela Prangan' and will plant trees, develop and maintain greenery around the area demarcated at its own cost, he said.

A free park will be developed for visitors.

The Guild promised the Maidan would not be dug up. Instead tubular structures will be used as far as possible as was used in the past.

"We will implement the recommendations given to us by the Environment Protection Cell set up by us for the fair in Park Circus Maidan on the Kolkata Maidan throughout the year and ensure that there is no degradation of the environment. We will also set up fountains and install leafy plants in flower pots across the fair ground during the period of the fair," Chatterjee said.

As was decided for Kolkata Book Fair at Park Circus Maidan, no fires would be permitted at the Kolkata Maidan book fair site.

Car parking would be at a distance to reduce dust pollution in the Maidan are.

According to Chatterjee, "There are few residences in and around the Maidan and offices close by 5pm. There are no schools, colleges or hospitals very close, so this is the best place for a book fair."

Kolkata Book Fair was shifted from the Maidan area in 2007 as the High Court felt then that under the state government's rules, it caused environment pollution.

It had been held on the Maidan for 31 years as that was the most convenient and popular location for the fair with excellent transport links and conveniences for visitors from the districts.

The fair at the Maidan faced a legal challenge from some environmental activists who used the rules of the government and KMC to get it shifted to Salt Lake in 2007.

The High Court had cancelled the Book Fair on Park Circus Maidan this year and directed the Guild to restore Park Circus to its original condition and hand it back to Kolkata Municipal Corporation at the earliest.

The bench issued the order in response to a PIL filed by local residents of Park Circus who pleaded that the fair and its lakhs of visitors daily in the densely populated residential area housing several schools and colleges and two important hospitals would violate clauses of the Pollution Act, Environment Protection Act and Noise Pollution Act.

In the fair that was scheduled to be held at Park Circus Maidan, the total sponsorship money that was expected to be collected was about Rs 41 lakh.

The biggest sponsor was the ABP group with sponsorship of Rs 16 lakh.

Other sponsors included banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and educational institutes.

This money was to be used for organisation of the book fair and to subsidise the stall space alotted to the participating publishers.

Kolkata Book Fair had over two million visitors every year.