“Every house should have a personal library and the reading habit could help to acquire knowledge,” said B Surender Mohan, chairman and managing director of NLC Ltd and chief patron of the 16th Neyveli Book Fair, at its concluding function here.
“This book fair makes us realise that the reading habit in us continues to exist in spite of the influence of the visual media,” he told the gathering. The response from the readers by way of purchase of books worth crores of rupees reiterates that the reading habit is not diminishing, he added.
Dinamani, the leading Tamil daily, was associated with the conduct of the Neyveli Book-Fair, which was started in 1998.
Eminent personalities Justice V Dhanapalan, Judge of the Madras High Court, A Radhika, IPS, Superintendent of Police of Cuddalore District, R Thandavan,Vice-Chancellor of University of Madras, S Murugan, IPS, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Villupuram range, K Vaidyanathan, editor of Dinamani visited the event.
Each day a writer felicitated by the Book Fair Committee and 10 flourishing publishers were honored. One new book was released on each day.
K Bhagyaraj, Tamil film director and actor, presented cash prizes to the winners of the short film competition.
P Elamaran, assistant professor at Gurunanak College, was honoured as the best writer. Mohan of Mayilavan Pathippagam was honoured as the best publisher. A new book Kanavukalil Or Iniya Payanam by S Muniyandi was released.