Shawdesh Desk:

The month-long Ekushey Book Fair-2023 was ended with a record sale of books worth about 3.5 crore yesterday.

The book fair, staged by 82 stalls, was made a record by selling books worth about 3.5 crore. In the previous year, the sale of books was worth about 1.26 crore, said the organizing committee.

The Amor Ekushey book fair ended through award giving ceremony which was held on the Divisional Public Library premises here.

Khulna Divisional Commissioner Md. Zillur Rahman Chowdhury was present as chief guest in the ceremony with Deputy Commissioner Khondokar Yasir Arefin in the chair.

The chief guest said that everybody should read books if he wants to achieve knowledge.

“You can become wise if you read books attentively with your mind. The sale of this huge number of books proved that the passion of reading books has been increased among the book lovers,” he said.

Addressing the guardians, he said, the new generation should be encouraged to read more books out of their textbooks.

Additional Deputy Inspector General of Police, Khulna range, Md Iqbal Hossain, Additional Commissioner of Khulna Metropolitan Police Sardar Rakibul Islam and Deputy Director of Local Government Department Md Yusup Ali, addressed as special guests.

Among others, vice-principal of government Sundarban Adarsh College Md Mizanur Rahman, freedom fighter Md Alamgir Kabir, Sardar Mahabubar Rahman and president of Khulna Book Publishers and Sellers Association Md Alamgir also spoke on the occasion.

Deputy Director of government Public Library of Khulna Mohammad Hamidur Rahman delivered the welcome speech.

Khulna district administration and government public library of Khulna jointly organised the Book fair.