Shawdesh Desk:

Many visitors complained that they faced troubles for stalls without numbers, darkness at the fair entrances and dust on the eighth day of the on-going Amar Ekuskey Book Fair on Wednesday.

Visitors said that stalls without serial numbers made it very difficult for them to find out a particular stall in such a large fair ground.

Nayan Chowdhury, a student of Dhaka Commerce College, said that he along with his friends was searching for Pendulum Books and Boibhob for a long time but they could not find the stalls as many of the stalls did not have number plates.

Shikha Prokashoni stall attendant Anamul said, ‘Usually the fair authorities provide the number plates. But my stall has not received the number plate yet.’

Stall manager of Sandesh Publication Mujibur Hoque said, ‘We printed the stall’s banner before we got the stall number. We will hang a number plate to reduce visitors’ suffering if the fair authorities do not provide the number plate.’

Poet Shahed Kayes, a regular visitor to the fair, expressed anger over the Bangla Academy’s mismanagement in the fair.

‘The academy’s mismanagement is causing troubles to the fair visitors and the mismanagement increased compared to previous years,’ mentioned Kayes.

‘They have not displayed sufficient stall allocation maps, stall number direction, taken dust control measures and arranged lighting around the fairground,’ added Kayes.

A visitor Anis Raihan, who came to the fairground with his family members in the evening, said, ‘We entered the fair using the gate beside the Teacher-Student Centre but there was no light. We felt unsafe walking in the darkness.’

A seven-member task force on January 5 in a letter asked the fair organising committee to address the darkness issue.

The fair organising committee member secretary KM Muzahidul Islam said that he would talk about providing enough light at the entrances beside the TSC and Doel Chattor in the upcoming meeting of the committee.

‘I have already asked the event management to provide the number plates and stall number directions. They will distribute them soon,’ said Muzahidul.

According to Bangla Academy, 114 new titles were published on Wednesday raising the total number of books published in the fair to 642 so far.

Of them, 44 collections of poems, 13 novels, 13 books of stories, 6 books of essays and 38 books of other genres arrived on the eighth day of the month-long fair.

The fair will open at 3:00pm on Thursday.