Publishers and visitors on Monday said that the turnout of visitors at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2025 decreased due to a number of controversial incidents and mismanagement at fair venues.
They also said that a group of people circulated different negative propagandas against the fair.
Monday was the 17th day of the month-long fair being organised by the Bangla Academy at Suhrawardy Udyan and the academy premises in the capital Dhaka.
Juthy Sarkar, 28, a primary school teacher from Keraniganj, said that almost every day there were traffic congestions on roads due to different protest programmes, while controversies surrounding the fair grew due to different issues that dampened the visitors鈥� mood.
鈥楤esides, a group of people always posted statuses on Facebook against the fair environment, management and insecurity for writers and readers. The fairground is nice to visit, but the ambience is nearly a trade fair,鈥� said Juthy.
Plabon Amin, a reciting artiste from Munshiganj, said that the Bangla Academy premises became almost desolate due to fewer visitors, so the main stage of the event ran with a thin audience.
鈥楳ismanagement is seen everywhere. Ice-cream shops, noodles and other food shops are too crowded, but the event place was almost empty, even visitors were not informed about the programme schedule,鈥� Plabon said.
SM Mohi Uddin Koli, publisher of Koli Prokashoni, said 17 days of the fair had gone, still sponsors were making stalls at the fairground, which clearly proved that there was no cohesive plan about the fair.
鈥楽ome seasonal publishers only focus on the fair and get allotment of stalls, but they have only four or five books instead of 25 books required for the allotment,鈥� Mohi Uddin said, adding that the Dhaka streets remained almost blocked every day because of a lot of protest programmes, which decreased the turnout of visitors.
鈥楢fter the fall of the fascist government, their collaborators in different fields are still active and they have created many planned disturbances at the fair,鈥� said Saeed Bari, the chief executive of publishing house Suchipatra.
鈥榃e hope that in the next few days, visitors will come to collect their desired books,鈥� said Saeed.
On Monday, a total of 113 new titles, including 41 collections of poems, 21 collections of short stories and 14 novels, were published, according to academy officials.
A discussion on the life and works of poet Shahid Qadri will be held on the academy premises today.