SAMBALPUR: Organisers of Sambalpur Book Fair have rescheduled the annual event due to upcoming Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup, scheduled to start at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from November 28.The book fair, which is held from January 15 to 24 every year at PHED ground at Ainthapali here, has been advanced by about a month.
The event will now be held from December 14 to 23 this year. This is the first time the book fair, which is organised by a Sambalpur-based organisation of intellectuals-Society for Education, Tradition and Unity (SETU), has been rescheduled.
Coordinator of Sambalpur Book Fair Sukanta Kar said the book fair in Bhubaneswar, which is organised in December, has been postponed to January next year due to the Hockey World Cup. Since the book fair in Bhubaneswar will be organised in January, book seller and publishers, who participate in the Sambalpur Book Fair, expressed their inability to come to Sambalpur in January, forcing them to reschedule the book fair here, he said. However, the rescheduling of the book fair here will not hamper the business of the book sellers and publishers, Sukanta said. He said Sambalpur Book Fair had started on a small scale with only 26 book stalls in 1999. Since then, SETU has been organising the annual event in the city every year. The book fair receives good response from book lovers and students from across the region. Several seminars on contemporary issues are also held during the 10-day event, he added.